About 7,000 households in Lafayette, Louisiana, and unincorporated Lafayette Parish have a permanently different trash collection day, a change that took effect the week of August 3, 2026. Lafayette Consolidated Government and contractor Acadiana Waste Services rebalanced routes because residential recycling participation nearly doubled since 2023 and left the old routes lopsided. Recycling, yard waste and bulky-item pickup moved with it.

Photo: an aerial view of downtown Lafayette, Louisiana. Richard Byrd, July 2008. CC BY 2.0 · Source. Resized for web.

What the collection day change covers

The updated schedule applies to all residential curbside service at once: trash, recycling, yard waste and bulky-item collection, according to LCG’s July 28 release. Affected customers were told directly, by mail and by email where the city had an address on file. Acadiana Waste Services is the contracted provider for the City of Lafayette and unincorporated Lafayette Parish, and LCG’s Environmental Quality Division continues to lead the Louisiana city’s residential waste and recycling program.

Why LCG and Acadiana Waste Services rebalanced routes

LCG credits the residential recycling program. Participation has nearly doubled since 2023, and the extra material collected across the parish left the existing routes increasingly unbalanced. Spreading stops more evenly is meant to improve efficiency and keep service reliable as the community grows. LCG and AWS both describe the work as a rebalance of routes, not a reduction in service.

How to find your own collection day

LCG directs affected residents to lafayettela.gov/wasteupdate, which links to the AWS route-change page at acadianawaste.com/route-changes. That page carries route-change information, other resources and an interactive address lookup tool that returns the day for a specific address.

The lookup is still the standing way to check. LCG’s homepage carries a banner telling residents that new AWS routes may affect their garbage pickup day, and the city’s trash-and-recycling page keeps a “Find Your Collection Day” link to the same tool. No street-by-street schedule was published, so the address lookup is the way to see an individual day. By phone, LCG’s Environmental Quality Division is at 337-291-8529 and AWS customer service is at 337-205-7710.

What the August 3 transition week allowed

During the transition week that began August 3, 2026, AWS gave affected households one-time flexibility: securely bagged household trash could go at the curb in addition to the collection cart, so waste would not pile up while people adjusted to a new day. That allowance belonged to that week, August 3 through 9, and ended with it. LCG’s release says nothing about repeating it for any later rebalance.

Set-out rules AWS asks residents to follow

These apply generally, not just during the switch:

  • Keep carts and any other collection items at least three feet apart so automated trucks can service each cart safely.
  • Do not overfill a cart. Overloaded carts cause litter and cannot be safely serviced.
  • Make sure the lid closes completely. A cart with overflowing contents will not be collected.

What this is not

This is a route rebalance from LCG and Acadiana Waste Services, not a service reduction. The same curbside services are collected; for affected homes they arrive on a different day. It is also not parish-wide. It reaches the roughly 7,000 households in the City of Lafayette and unincorporated Lafayette Parish that were notified directly by mail or email, not every Lafayette Parish resident. The address lookup settles either way.