Houston, Texas Trash Pickup Schedule & Recycling Rules

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

Houston trash pickup is run by the City of Houston Solid Waste Management Department, now part of Houston Public Works, for homes and buildings of up to eight units. The black garbage cart goes weekly, the green recycling cart every other week and heavy trash every other month. Find your days with the Find Your Schedule tool or the HTX Collects app. What trips people up: heavy trash may not go out before 6 p.m. the Friday before pickup.

• Who collects: Houston Solid Waste Management, the City of Houston Solid Waste Management Department (now a division of Houston Public Works), for homes and buildings of up to eight units
• Your pickup day: depends on your address; Find Your Schedule ↗ or the HTX Collects app
• Holiday changes: set in a city notice before each holiday; skipped routes usually run one day later; Holiday Schedule ↗
• Missed pickup: call 311 or use the Houston 311 portal ↗
• Contact: 311 or 713-837-0311, 24 hours; request status 832-394-1453, Monday to Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; 311@houstontx.gov
• Official website: City of Houston Solid Waste Management ↗

Photo: Houston skyline just after sunset. Mike Hawkins, 2011-01-20. CC BY 2.0 · Source. Resized for web.

Houston trash and recycling pickup schedule

The department serves more than 390,000 households.

• Bring carts in by 10 p.m. City code says to store them out of view from the street where your lot allows it.
• Keep lids closed and leave 3 feet between carts and from mailboxes, vehicles and trees. Blocked carts are not emptied. Face the recycling cart to the street, handle toward the house.
• The garbage cart takes bagged household garbage and food waste, but no chemicals, paint, tires, batteries or construction debris.
• Apartment complexes with more than eight units and businesses hire private haulers. Where a homeowners association has a city sponsorship agreement, its contractor collects instead.

What goes in the Houston recycling cart

The Curbside Recycling page ↗ and HTX Collects carry the city’s Waste Wizard for single items.

• Yes: newspapers, magazines, catalogs, junk mail and office paper; flattened cardboard; plastic containers #1 to #5 and #7, rinsed and drained; aluminum and bimetal cans; glass bottles, jugs and jars; milk, juice, soup and plant-based drink cartons.
• No: plastic bags and film, such as shrink wrap and cereal or cracker bags; greasy or food-soiled paper, napkins, paper towels and wrapping paper; yard waste; clothing and linens; large plastic items such as toys, hoses, coolers and buckets.

A greasy pizza box counts as soiled paper, and the city’s recycling centers refuse pizza boxes outright.

Yard waste and food scraps

Houston collects yard waste with your scheduled heavy trash and tree waste pickup, not on garbage day. If it is missed, call 311.

• Use any 100% biodegradable or compostable bag meeting ASTM D6400 or EN 13432; city-seal bags are no longer required. Your own reusable containers work too, but not the city garbage cart.
• Tie small logs in bundles up to 4 feet long. Keep each bag, container or bundle at 50 pounds or less and never mix it with trash.
• Landscapers must haul away what they cut.

Food waste goes in the garbage cart. For Christmas trees, last season the city took undecorated natural trees at 20 sites from December 26 to January 23; flocked, painted and artificial trees cannot be recycled.

Bulk trash pickup in Houston

Heavy trash goes every other month on your assigned day, up to six curbside collections a year; Find Your Schedule and HTX Collects show the date. Buildings with more than eight units are not served.

• Set items just behind the curb between 6 p.m. the Friday before and 7 a.m. on the day, off the street and sidewalk and clear of meters, hydrants and wires.
• Limit: 8 cubic yards, about a minivan, of which up to 4 cubic yards may be your own building material (no shingles, brick, plaster or concrete).
• Junk: furniture, bundled carpet, mattresses and box springs, toilets, bicycles, toys, stoves, washers, dryers and water heaters. Refrigerators and freezers need a certified technician’s tag showing the refrigerant was removed.
• Tree waste: limbs, branches and stumps, each piece up to 8 inches in diameter and 10 feet long.
• Tires: up to four passenger tires, picked up separately within a week.
• Refused: bagged garbage, electronics, paint and chemicals, dirt, shingles and anything a contractor produced. A pile mixing refused items may be left entirely.

Houston holiday trash schedule

Houston lists 13 city holidays for 2026 and announces each collection plan shortly before the day. This year, Presidents Day, Memorial Day and Labor Day moved Monday routes to Tuesday and Tuesday routes to Wednesday; Spring Holiday and Juneteenth moved Friday routes to Saturday; MLK Day and July 3 kept regular collection. Drop-off sites closed on each holiday except July 3, closing July 4 instead. The table shows what happened last time.

Hazardous waste, electronics and drop-off sites

Household hazardous waste goes to the city’s two Environmental Service Centers (ESCs), which serve Houston residents. Bring a current Texas ID and a City of Houston utility bill or lease with the same address.

• ESC South, 11500 S. Post Oak Rd., Houston, TX 77035. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• ESC North, 5614 Neches St., Houston, TX 77026. Second Thursday of each month, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Both take: chemicals and aerosols up to 100 pounds a visit; automotive fluids up to 25 quarts; paint up to 25 gallons; fuel up to 15 gallons; five large electronic items; lithium-ion and rechargeable batteries, not alkaline; fluorescent tubes; propane tanks up to 5 gallons; five tires a month.

The six Residential Drop-Off Centers are free and open Tuesday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., up to four visits a month. Bulk and tree waste need the ID plus a matching utility bill or lease; recycling needs only the ID.

• North, 9003 N. Main, 77022; Northwest, 14400 Sommermeyer, 77041; Northeast, 5565 Kirkpatrick, 77028; Southeast, 2240 Central St., 77017; South, 5100 Sunbeam, 77033; Southwest, 10785 SW Freeway, 77074.
• Taken: mattresses, furniture (two large items), appliances, tagged refrigerators, tree waste, junk, recyclables, 5 passenger tires a visit and 5 quarts of motor oil. Refused: garbage, TVs, paint, chemicals, dirt and concrete. Pickups and trailers up to 10 feet only.

Recycling centers take recyclables, scrap metal, electronics, 5 tires without rims, batteries, oil, latex paint and antifreeze:

• Westpark Consumer Recycling Center, 5900 Westpark, Houston, TX 77057. Tuesday to Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Clear Lake/Ellington Airport, 246 Loop Rd., Houston, TX 77034. Daily, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• Kingwood, 3210 W. Lake Houston Pkwy., Houston, TX 77339. Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The Reuse Warehouse, 9003 N. Main St. (Tuesday to Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., 281-814-3324), gives away donated building materials free.

Fees and billing

• Since July 1, 2026, city-served households pay a $5 monthly Solid Waste Administrative Fee ($4.62 plus $0.38 sales tax) on the utility bill, first billed in August 2026.
• The $1.29 monthly Container Lease Fee stays on its own line; city code ends it with fiscal year 2027 unless Council keeps it.
• Homes with private trash service do not pay. If another utility bills your water, the fee comes on an annual bill each August. Seniors, low-income households and residents with disabilities may qualify for help through 311.
• Extra bags need Tags for Bags stickers: $2.90 each, five minimum, at H-E-B and participating Kroger stores, online or by mail. Keep each bag at 40 pounds or less. Add-A-Can enrollments for a second cart are paused.

Missed pickup, damaged carts and new carts

Report a missed collection or a broken cart to 311: dial 311 or 713-837-0311 at any hour, use the Houston 311 app or portal, or email 311@houstontx.gov. For a request’s status, call 832-394-1453, Monday to Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

• Carts damaged by city crews are replaced free, and routine wear gets a free replacement at most once every ten years; other replacements cost the container plus a delivery fee.
• New carts: with your 311 request number, call 832-394-1453 for a Container Pickup Program appointment and collect the cart weekdays, 8 to 10 a.m., at 5614 Neches St. or 11500 S. Post Oak Rd. Bring your water bill. 311 can arrange delivery instead.

Set-out rules and fines

Houston’s rewritten solid waste code, City Code Chapter 39, took effect July 1, 2026.

• Putting garbage at the curb before 6 p.m. the day before is unlawful, and so is setting materials out after the crew has passed.
• Heavy trash out before 6 p.m. the Friday before is unlawful; the owner or occupant on record is presumed responsible.
• A violation costs $50 to $2,000 on a first conviction and $250 to $2,000 after that; each day counts separately.
• Report illegal dumping through the Houston 311 portal.

Materials with their own rules

• Household hazardous waste: ESC South four days a week, ESC North monthly.
• Lithium-ion batteries: never in the garbage cart; the ESCs take them.
• Paint: up to 25 gallons per ESC visit; never in heavy trash.
• Mattresses: heavy trash pile or a drop-off center.
• Pizza boxes: greasy paper is refused at the curb.
• Christmas trees: undecorated natural trees at seasonal drop-off sites.
• Tires: four passenger tires with heavy trash.
• Aerosol cans and propane tanks: aerosols at a drop-off center or ESC; small propane tanks at an ESC.
• Helium tanks: never in either cart; puncture the empty tank and take it to a recycling center or a scrap metal yard.

More in Texas

• Texas trash and recycling rules
• Austin trash pickup
• Boerne trash pickup
• Dallas trash pickup
• El Paso trash pickup
• Fort Worth trash pickup
• San Antonio trash pickup
• Holiday changes by city
• Bulk pickup rules by city
• Missed pickup contacts by city
• Drop-off locations by city