Pennsylvania trash pickup is run by cities, counties and private haulers, not by the state.
Your pickup day comes from your city’s or hauler’s own lookup. Among the largest cities, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Allentown collect curbside themselves. Pennsylvania has an electronics recycling law, but no statewide bottle deposit, PaintCare paint or mattress program.
Find your city
- Philadelphia — Department of Sanitation, properties of six units or fewer. Weekly trash and recycling on the same day; the set-out window changes with the season.
Other large cities and their official collection pages:
- Pittsburgh: City of Pittsburgh Department of Public Works - Environmental Services. Environmental Services picks up refuse each week, and residents of single-family homes and small apartments of five or fewer units must set recycling out for bi-weekly curbside collection. Official page ↗ Look up your collection day ↗
- Allentown: City of Allentown Bureau of Recycling and Solid Waste, Department of Public Works. Trash and recycling go out between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. on the collection night; recycling is collected once a week and yard waste every other week year-round. Official page ↗ Look up your collection day ↗
Missing your city? Suggest a City.
Who collects in Pennsylvania
- Philadelphia Department of Sanitation — municipal department
- About 94 percent of Pennsylvanians have access to recycling, through roughly 1,050 curbside programs and 870 drop-off programs. Source ↗
- Any municipality with more than 10,000 residents must provide curbside recycling service, and collection systems and accepted materials are set by whoever runs the local program. Source ↗
- DEP runs a toll-free Recycling Hotline at 800-346-4242 for recycling questions. Source ↗
National haulers (Republic Services, WM, Waste Connections) hold contracts in many places; the city or county names the hauler for each street.
State-level rules
- Container deposit: No statewide container deposit law. NCSL’s state beverage container deposit laws page says ten states and Guam have deposit-refund systems and Pennsylvania is not among them. Source ↗
- Paint: Not a PaintCare state. PaintCare’s own list of program states covers twelve states and the District of Columbia and does not include Pennsylvania. Leftover paint goes through the local household hazardous waste program; see paint. Source ↗
- Mattresses: No statewide mattress take-back program. The Mattress Recycling Council’s Bye Bye Mattress program operates only in California, Connecticut, Oregon and Rhode Island. See mattresses. Source ↗
- Electronics: The Covered Device Recycling Act (Act 108 of 2010) requires manufacturers to run recycling programs for computers, monitors, peripherals and televisions and bans putting those covered devices in municipal waste. Source ↗
State agency
- State agency: Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Waste Management. It administers Pennsylvania’s statewide recycling program under Act 101, permits municipal waste and recycling facilities, funds local programs with the $2-per-ton disposal fee, and points residents to their county recycling coordinator. Official website ↗
- Find your local program: County Recycling Coordinators ↗
- Contact: 1-800-346-4242
Flag of Pennsylvania. Public-domain artwork. Artwork: Simtropolitan, Jean-Pierre Demailly. Source. Resized to 480 pixels wide.
Materials with their own rules
Paint · Lithium-ion batteries · Household hazardous waste · Mattresses · Pizza boxes · Christmas trees
Neighboring states
Delaware · Maryland · New Jersey · New York · Ohio · West Virginia
Sources
Official pages used: pa.gov · pa.gov · phila.gov · phila.gov · phila.gov · pittsburghpa.gov · pittsburghpa.gov · pittsburghpa.gov · allentownpa.gov · allentownpa.gov · allentownpa.gov · ncsl.org · paintcare.org · byebyemattress.com · pa.gov · files.dep.state.pa.us.
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