Charlotte Trash Pickup Schedule and Recycling Rules

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Charlotte trash pickup schedule: weekly garbage and yard waste, alternate-week recycling, and booked bulk collection.

Charlotte’s trash pickup schedule depends on your address: garbage and yard waste are collected weekly, while recycling runs every other week on a green or orange week. Use My Charlotte Lookup for your assigned day and recycling color. Book bulky items separately. Have materials ready by 6 a.m., and check the city’s holiday rule before assuming a weekday route will run as usual.

• Who collects: City of Charlotte Solid Waste Services ↗
• Your pickup day: My Charlotte Lookup ↗ shows your address’s day and green or orange recycling week
• Holiday changes: Thursday and Friday routes run one day late at Thanksgiving; Friday runs one day late at Christmas; 2026 holiday schedule ↗
• Missed pickup: report collection issues within 48 hours to CharMeck 311
• Contact: 311 or 704-336-7600; curbit@charlottenc.gov
• Official website: Charlotte Trash and Recycling ↗

Photo: Aerial view of the Uptown Charlotte skyline. Precisionviews, edited by Cmao20, 2018-10-01. CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source. Resized for web.

How the Charlotte pickup schedule works

Your garbage day is weekly. Recycling uses that same weekday, but only in the green or orange weeks assigned to your address. The city recycling calendar ↗ shows the color for each week; it does not tell you which color your address uses. Find that in My Charlotte Lookup.

The cart’s green color and your green recycling week are different things. Orange-week addresses also use the city’s green recycling cart.

Put garbage, recyclables, yard waste and scheduled bulky items out by 6 a.m. on the service day, no earlier than the day before. Keep cart handles facing your property, place carts within six feet of the curb and leave three feet of clearance from other collection items and obstacles. Do not block the sidewalk. Remove carts by midnight on collection day.

Bag and tie garbage before placing it in the gray cart. Close lids completely; items outside an overfilled garbage or recycling cart are not collected. Vehicle parking or another obstruction can prevent safe access.

For service texts, send your collection weekday to 73224. The city’s example is “Thursday” for English updates or “Jueves” for Spanish. Residents physically unable to move carts may qualify for backyard collection; call 311 about the disability service.

Apartment, condominium and townhome collection can use the city’s multi-family service. Ask the property manager how the building’s containers and bulk bookings work; the household rollout-cart setup above should not be assumed for every complex.

Recycling

Put accepted items loose in the city-issued green recycling cart. Plastic bags do not belong in it. Cut or tear cardboard into small pieces that fit loosely rather than folding a large box into the cart. Cardboard left beside the cart is not collected as regular cart recycling.

Charlotte’s current collection guidelines distinguish these materials:

• Yes:
  • Cardboard cut or torn into small pieces.
  • Plastic bottles and jugs with necks.
  • Paper and magazines.
  • Milk and juice cartons.
  • Glass bottles and jars, with lids allowed.
  • Empty metal cans.
• No:
  • Food.
  • Shredded paper.
  • Paper plates and napkins.
  • Plastic bags.
  • Plastic food trays, cups and cutlery.
  • Takeout containers.
  • Styrofoam.
  • Diapers.
  • Hoses and cords.
  • Scrap metal and auto parts.

The county’s drop-off centers accept some materials that the curbside cart does not. Use the facility’s own list for a drop-off trip rather than copying its wider list into the city cart.

Yard waste

Leaves and grass clippings go in paper bags or reusable containers no larger than 32 gallons. Plastic bags, including compostable plastic bags, are not accepted. The city’s collection video also gives a 75-pound maximum for a full reusable container.

Brush and limbs must be no longer than five feet and no larger than four inches in diameter. Separate them into piles no longer than five feet and no higher than three feet, with two feet between piles. Do not tie limbs. Logs must be under four inches in diameter; tree stumps are not collected.

Keep yard waste within six feet of the curb and three feet from other collection items and obstacles. Do not block the sidewalk or blow debris into the street. Natural Christmas trees at single-family homes go out on the regular yard-waste day with decorations removed. Artificial trees and wreaths need booked bulky collection.

Bulky trash pickup in Charlotte

Book bulky items online ↗, through the CLT+ app or by calling 311. The city requires you to receive its garbage collection to use this service. Unscheduled curbside items are not collected.

Set booked items out by 6 a.m. on the collection date, no sooner than the day before, with three feet between items. To cancel or change a request, call 311 by noon on the business day before the booked date.

Preparation depends on the item. The city’s bulky item eligibility list ↗ specifies these examples:

• Accepted:
  • Mattresses and box springs.
  • Furniture prepared as listed for that item.
  • Empty refrigerators and freezers with doors removed.
  • TVs under 75 pounds, with an X taped over glass.
  • Window air conditioners.
  • Car, motorcycle, van and small-pickup tires, rims removed, up to eight per collection.
  • Large move-in amounts of cardboard that will not fit the recycling cart.
• Refused:
  • Materials from a commercial contractor’s work.
  • Concrete, bricks, cinderblocks, dirt and rocks.
  • Drywall, shingles, siding and insulation.
  • Tree stumps and yard waste.
  • Paint and other hazardous waste.
  • Propane, helium and oxygen tanks.
  • Fire extinguishers.
  • Central air-conditioning or heating units.
  • Fire-damaged items.

Glass needs special preparation. Whole mirrors, doors and windows require an X taped on both sides and a box marked “glass.” The city’s list excludes loose shards from bulky pickup and directs bagged shards into the rollout container. A large intact pane and small broken pieces therefore do not use the same bulk instruction.

Charlotte holiday trash schedule

These are the remaining holidays in the city’s 2026 collection schedule. Mecklenburg County drop-off sites have their own closings, separate from Charlotte’s curbside routes.

The county lists its full-service centers as open the day after Thanksgiving and on Christmas Eve. Do not infer the curbside schedule from an office closure or a county facility closure.

Hazardous waste, electronics and drop-off sites

Mecklenburg County runs the full-service drop-off facilities; it does not collect the city’s curbside carts. Household hazardous waste disposal is free for county residents at those facilities. Tell staff when you arrive with hazardous materials and keep products separate, labeled and securely packed.

The county’s four full-service centers normally open Monday–Saturday, 7 a.m.–4 p.m.:

• Compost Central Disposal and Recycling Center, 140 Valleydale Road, Charlotte.
• Foxhole Disposal and Recycling Center, 17131 Lancaster Highway, Charlotte.
• Hickory Grove Disposal and Recycling Center, 8007 Pence Road, Charlotte.
• North Mecklenburg Disposal and Recycling Center, 12300 N. Statesville Road, Huntersville.

Business and non-residential loads and dump trailers are not allowed at North Mecklenburg on Saturdays during construction. Foxhole’s landfill section is separate from its general drop-off area and closes Saturdays.

County drop-off limits include 100 pounds of paint, 20 gallons of antifreeze, 20 gallons of motor oil per resident per day, 10 gallons of gasoline per resident per day, five tires, and one mattress and one box spring. One residential propane tank up to 20 pounds is accepted at no cost. Confirm the destination’s materials list before taking a load.

County staff do not accept business hazardous waste through the household service, pharmaceuticals, ammunition, explosives or radioactive materials. The county currently lists lithium-ion and other rechargeable batteries for its HHW areas; the city’s hazardous-waste page also names retail battery drop-offs. Check the receiving site’s requirements for your battery type.

Fees and billing

Charlotte’s FY 2027 budget began July 1, 2026. The adopted-budget announcement describes year two of its curbside-service cost-recovery plan, aiming for 50% cost recovery by FY 2029. Use the charge applicable to your property and service on the current bill; the city service and county disposal programs are separate.

Cart repair and replacement are free. Request help through 311 or cartsadmin@charlottenc.gov, stating your address, which cart is damaged and which part needs repair. The city’s current page says to allow at least two business days and leave the cart curbside from the request date. Backyard-service customers do not need to move their carts to the curb for the repair.

At county full-service centers, residents may dispose of up to five bags of household kitchen trash per day free. Bulky waste, construction debris and yard waste carry disposal fees. County fee booths accept debit cards and most major credit cards except American Express, with no cash or checks. A business card or business vehicle attracts the business rate.

Missed pickup

1. Check your assigned day and recycling week in My Charlotte Lookup.
2. Check the city’s holiday schedule and whether the materials met its preparation rules.
3. If garbage, yard waste, recycling or a booked bulky collection was missed, call 311 or 704-336-7600 within 48 hours.
4. Explain the service, address and collection date. For a damaged cart, use the separate repair request above.

Materials with their own rules

• How to dispose of broken glass — packaging sharp fragments and the difference between bottles, mirrors and household glassware.

• Mattresses: book bulky pickup or check the county’s drop-off limit.

• Household hazardous waste: use the county’s household facilities, not the recycling cart.

• Household batteries and lithium-ion batteries: check the battery type and receiving site.

• Paint: county HHW and the city’s dried-paint instructions are different routes.

• Light bulbs: fluorescent bulbs are on the county’s HHW list.

• Acetone and bleach: household chemicals have their own handling and disposal rules.

• Antifreeze: keep it separate from oil and other automotive liquids.

• Pizza boxes: follow the local accepted-material list.

• Christmas trees: natural trees and artificial trees use different services.

• Tires: curbside bulk and county drop-off have different limits.

• Aerosol cans and propane tanks: empty packaging and a fuel cylinder are different materials.

More in North Carolina

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