Columbus, Ohio Trash Pickup Schedule & Recycling Rules

States & Cities › Ohio › Columbus

Columbus trash pickup: collection days, recycling and bulk waste rules.

Columbus trash pickup is run by the City of Columbus Division of Refuse Collection. Trash goes weekly, the blue recycling cart goes weekly and bagged yard waste every other week, each on its own schedule. Find your days with the city’s Collection Day Lookup or the PickUp CBUS app. What trips people up most: nearly every household is in a color zone, so the trash day moves one day later after every city holiday.

• Who collects: the City of Columbus Department of Public Service, Division of Refuse Collection, for more than 340,000 households; Trash, Recycling & Bulk Collection ↗
• Your pickup day: depends on your address; Collection Day Lookup ↗ or the free PickUp CBUS app. Color-zone households can call 614-645 plus their color, for example 614-645-GOLD (4653)
• Holiday changes: no trash collection on 11 city holidays, and color-zone trash days move one day later after each; Find My Collection Day ↗
• Missed pickup: call 311 at (614) 645-3111 or report it through the 311 Customer Service Center ↗
• Contact: 311, (614) 645-3111; 311@columbus.gov; Refuse Collection, 2100 Alum Creek Drive, Columbus, OH 43207
• Official website: City of Columbus: Trash, Recycling & Bulk Collection ↗

Photo: Downtown Columbus skyline over the Scioto River, seen from the Main Street Bridge. Paul Wasneski, 2018-06-20. Public domain · Source. Resized for web.

Columbus trash and recycling pickup schedule

Refuse Collection trucks use mechanical arms to empty city-issued wheeled containers at the curb or in the alley. City recycling serves single-family homes, buildings of up to four attached units, and condos or apartments that use city-serviced 90- or 300-gallon trash containers.

• Trash colors: nearly all households have a color (gold, gray, navy, pink or ruby) tied to their trash day, which moves forward one day after each observed holiday: a Tuesday becomes a Wednesday until the next holiday. Call 614-645 plus your color, such as 614-645-NAVY (6289), for your current day.
• Recycling and yard waste keep fixed days that do not rotate with the colors. The lookup, the app and the Rotating Color Calendar show all three days.
• September 2025 change: trash routes were rebalanced from September 2, 2025, and about half of households got a new trash day and color. Recycling and yard waste days did not change.
• Set-out time: trucks run from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Trash goes out no earlier than 6 p.m. the day before and by 6 a.m., and comes back by 2 p.m. the day after. Recycling goes out by 6 a.m. and back within 24 hours.
• Placement: recycling goes where your trash is collected, within 1 foot of the curb or alley, arrow facing out, 3 feet from other carts and obstructions. Alley carts go behind your own property.
• Bag your trash in plastic or paper bags before it goes in the container.
• The container is city property, printed with your address. Leave it behind if you move.
• Elderly residents or those with a physical limitation and no one to help can apply through 311 for the Exemption Service, with a doctor’s statement.

What goes in the Columbus recycling cart

Columbus has collected recycling every week since the week of June 12, 2023. Only the city’s 64-gallon blue cart is collected, and a property must have room to store it between pickups to qualify. Rumpke processes Franklin County’s recyclables, and SWACO’s RecycleRight.org ↗ explains the rules: plastics are accepted by shape, and the number on the bottom does not matter. Empty and rinse containers. The PickUp CBUS app has a Waste Wizard for single items.

• Yes: paper and cardboard; plastic bottles, jugs, tubs and cups, and clear plastic clamshells such as berry containers (caps and lids can stay on); glass bottles and jars; metal cans; milk, juice, broth and soup cartons (rinsed, lids off); paper, plastic and aluminum cups, including to-go coffee cups and their sleeves.
• Greasy pizza boxes go in whole once the pizza and liner are out. Flatten them.
• Cups: put fast-food cups in with the lid on and the straw out; throw away coffee-cup lids.
• No: plastic bags and film (take them to a store drop-off), foam or “Styrofoam,” Solo-style party cups, coffee pods, take-out containers, straws and stirrers, candy wrappers and shredded cheese bags.

Boxes too big for the cart go to a SWACO recycling drop-off listed on RecycleRight.org, and foam goes to the city’s convenience centers. SWACO’s Hefty ReNew program with Rumpke takes chip bags, granola bar wrappers, film, plastic cutlery and foam in Hefty ReNew bags; RecycleRight.org lists the items and stores.

Yard waste and food scraps

Curbside yard waste pickup, run with the city’s partner Rumpke, reaches most Columbus households every other week. Check the lookup or the Biweekly Yard Waste Map (PDF) ↗ for your Zone A or Zone B week.

• Use paper lawn and leaf bags or reusable containers marked “Yard Waste.” Yard waste in plastic bags or in the city trash container is not collected, and leaves, grass clippings and small branches may not go in with household trash.
• Tie small branches with twine in bundles no longer than 4 feet and no more than 2 feet around.
• Set yard waste 3 feet from trash containers, hydrants, mailboxes and trees. There is no limit on the number of bags.
• Questions about what is accepted go to Rumpke at 1-888-786-7531. Dirt, rocks and sod go to a site seeking fill dirt; burning yard waste is prohibited.
• Both city convenience centers take yard waste free, but no grass clippings. Com-Til, the city’s compost facility (no grass clippings), and Ohio Mulch also take it; call ahead for hours.

Fruit and vegetables are not yard waste. Columbus runs free food scraps drop-off sites open 24 hours a day, both convenience centers take food scraps during opening hours, and SWACO lists more sites at SaveMoreThanFood.org ↗. The convenience centers take meat, bones and seafood in small amounts, dairy and soiled uncoated paper; only BPI-certified compostable plastics are accepted. See the Food Waste Prevention page ↗. SWACO’s Recycling Convenience Center also takes live holiday trees and greenery, and pumpkins and gourds from October 1 to December 14.

Bulk trash pickup in Columbus

Bulk pickup is free, but nothing is collected unless you schedule it through the 311 Customer Service Center ↗ online or at (614) 645-3111. The city picks up furniture, mattresses, carpet and appliances without refrigerants, such as dishwashers and washing machines. Do not put bulk items in your trash container. For items the city cannot collect, it refers residents to private haulers.

Without an appointment, take bulk items free to a city Waste and Reuse Convenience Center: furniture and mattresses in poor condition as bulk waste, furniture in good condition, and washers, dryers, stoves, dishwashers and hot water tanks as scrap metal. The centers refuse refrigerators, freezers, dehumidifiers, heat pumps, water coolers and air conditioners. Those appliances with refrigerant (freon) go to SWACO’s Household Hazardous Waste Facility or its Recycling Convenience Center.

Columbus holiday trash schedule

There is no trash collection on city-observed holidays: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Indigenous Peoples Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. Color-zone trash days move forward one day after each holiday. For recycling and yard waste, any pickup that falls on or after the holiday in that week runs one day late, with Friday’s pickup on Saturday; the next week is back to normal. Indigenous Peoples Day is the exception: the city’s October 8, 2026 notice keeps weekly recycling and biweekly yard waste on their regular days. Good Friday does not affect collection.

Hazardous waste, electronics and drop-off sites

The Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO) runs household hazardous waste disposal for all Franklin County residents; never put it in the trash. Its facility takes batteries, cleaners, flammables, old gasoline, motor oil, antifreeze, oil-based paint, spray paint, pool and lawn chemicals, fluorescent bulbs, smoke detectors, fire extinguishers and propane or helium tanks. It refuses ammunition, asbestos, needles, medicines, tires and trash.

SWACO also holds mobile household hazardous waste events in suburbs such as Grove City and Westerville, and the Franklin County Auditor runs free shred and e-waste days; both post their dates on their event pages.

• SWACO Household Hazardous Waste Facility, 645 E. 8th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43201, at E. 8th and Essex Avenue; 614-294-1300. Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the first Saturday of the month 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., closed holidays. Free for Franklin County residents for most items; latex paint costs extra, typically $1 a gallon. Also takes food scraps, scrap metal, appliances with freon and large blocks of foam. No businesses.
• SWACO Recycling Convenience Center, 2566 Jackson Pike, Columbus, OH 43223. Monday to Friday 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Franklin County residents only. Takes recyclables, electronics and TVs, all appliances, batteries including lithium-ion, motor oil, all paint, food waste, select yard waste, scrap metal, foam packaging and paper for shredding. Mattresses and box springs through November 30, 2026, if dry and free of bedbugs, mold and heavy stains. Fees: $5 a tire, $15 for an LCD TV, $25 to $45 for a CRT by size; cards carry a 3% fee.
• Alum Creek Waste and Reuse Convenience Center, 2100 Alum Creek Drive, Columbus, OH 43207, and Georgesville Waste and Reuse Convenience Center, 1550 Georgesville Road, Columbus, OH 43228. Tuesday to Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; closed Sunday, Monday, holidays and the Tuesday after a Monday holiday. Free, for Columbus residents and waste from their homes only; no businesses or landscapers. They take household trash, recycling, computers, phones and tablets, food scraps, yard waste, clothes, furniture, bicycles, scrap metal, cooking oil, bulk waste and polystyrene foam. They refuse hazardous materials, tires, motor oil, construction and demolition waste, toilets, refrigerated appliances, grass clippings, treated wood, soil, drums and cylinders, and commercial waste.

Fees

The city charges no fee for weekly recycling, and bulk pickup and the city convenience centers are free for residents. Extra containers cost $97.20 for trash and $48.60 for recycling, one of each per household. Replacements, requested by the property owner, cost $90 for trash and $45 for recycling; the city says prices may change.

Missed pickup, damaged carts and new carts

A container may be skipped if it went out after 6 a.m., sat in the wrong spot, held prohibited materials or was blocked by a parked car. Call 311 at (614) 645-3111 or use the 311 website with your name, address and phone number or email, and the city will try to collect it.

• Repairs and missing containers: give 311 the serial number from the side of the container. Repairs and replacements happen on a collection day, in most cases the next one.
• Extra containers are ordered through 311.
• New residents: call 311. The city confirms the address is inside Columbus and delivers a container if needed.

Set-out rules and illegal dumping

City code (Sections 705.03 and 707.03) makes the property owner responsible for keeping the collection point and the area around it free of debris, spills and overflow. Report illegal dumping to the city with a description of the vehicle or the person dumping and a license number if you have one; the city refers it to a refuse compliance investigator. The Franklin County Environmental Justice Program also takes reports at (614) 871-5322.

Materials with their own rules

• Mattresses: free bulk pickup through 311 or a city convenience center.
• Household hazardous waste: SWACO’s facility at 645 E. 8th Avenue.
• Paint: oil-based and spray paint free at the HHW facility; latex about $1 a gallon there, or dry it with hardener, cat litter or sawdust and put it in the trash.
• Lithium-ion batteries: SWACO takes them; store batteries apart, since SWACO warns they can catch fire.
• Pizza boxes: greasy boxes go in the blue cart whole, once empty with the liner out.
• Christmas trees: collected with yard waste, undecorated, cut in half if taller than 8 feet.
• Tires: not at the city centers; $5 each at SWACO’s Recycling Convenience Center.
• Aerosol cans and propane tanks: propane tanks and spray paint go to the HHW facility.

More in Ohio

• Ohio trash and recycling rules
• Painesville trash pickup
• Holiday changes by city
• Bulk pickup rules by city
• Missed pickup contacts by city
• Drop-off locations by city