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Houston Trash and Recycling Pickup

Residents · Updated July 2026

Houston curbside collection covers weekly garbage, recycling, and a heavy trash program that runs every other month. The rules are simple once you know your assigned day and what the heavy trash program does and does not take. Getting it right means your pile actually gets picked up instead of skipped.

Find your pickup day

Collection days are assigned by address, so a neighbor one street over can be on a different day. The fastest way to confirm yours is the address lookup on the City of Houston Solid Waste Management site, which returns your garbage day, your recycling week, and your heavy trash day in one place. Write these down or add them to a calendar, because holidays can shift them.

Garbage and recycling

Household garbage goes in the black or gray city cart and is collected weekly. Recycling is single-stream, so paper, cardboard, metal cans, and accepted plastics go together in the green-lid cart, and it is picked up on a set recycling week rather than every week. Break down cardboard so it fits inside the cart with the lid closed, and keep items loose rather than bagged in plastic, since plastic bags jam sorting equipment. Glass is not accepted in the curbside recycling cart; the city runs separate drop-off sites for glass.

Heavy trash: tree waste and junk waste

Heavy trash is the part that trips people up. Eligible homes on city curbside service get up to six heavy trash collections a year, one every other month, on an assigned day. A single heavy trash pickup takes both tree waste and junk waste together, up to a limit of about 8 cubic yards (roughly the size of a minivan). The two categories are:

• Tree waste: clean wood only, such as tree limbs, branches, and stumps, with individual pieces no larger than 8 inches across or 10 feet long. Keep it free of dirt, roots, and building material. Bagged grass and leaves go out with weekly yard waste, not heavy trash.
• Junk waste: bulky items that are not clean wood, such as furniture, carpet, mattresses, toilets, and appliances. Refrigerators and freezers are only taken with a certified technician's tag showing the refrigerant was removed.

The city does not take contractor debris, construction or demolition material, dirt, rock, concrete, or roofing and shingles at the curb. If accepted and unaccepted items are mixed in one pile, crews can refuse the whole pile, so keep those items out.

How to set out heavy trash

Place material at the curb no earlier than 6 p.m. the Friday before your collection day, and have it out by 7 a.m. on the day itself. Keep the pile away from your cart, parked cars, fences, water meters, and low wires so the grapple truck can reach it. There is a per-home volume limit on each collection, so very large cleanouts may take more than one cycle.

Holidays and delays

Collection shifts around major holidays, and the city posts an annual holiday schedule with the adjusted days. Heavy rain and storm debris events can also change pickups, since crews may be pulled to storm cleanup. Check the city holiday schedule at the start of a week that contains a holiday rather than assuming your normal day holds.

Confirm your exact days and the current rules on the official City of Houston Solid Waste Management site, and see the heavy trash rules for the current tree and junk waste details.

Common reasons a pile gets skipped

Most missed pickups trace back to a handful of avoidable issues. Mixing unaccepted material into the pile, such as contractor debris, dirt, or shingles, is the top one, since crews can refuse the whole pile when banned items are included. Going over the roughly 8 cubic yard limit can leave part of the pile behind. Blocking the pile with a parked car, a low wire, or a water meter keeps the grapple truck from reaching it. Bagging recycling in plastic sends the whole cart to the wrong stream. Putting the cart out after the truck has already passed, rather than by 7 a.m., means waiting another cycle. When a pickup is missed and none of these apply, file a 311 report with your address and collection day.

What the city will not take at the curb

Heavy trash has limits. Crews do not collect construction and demolition debris from a contractor job, dirt, rock, or concrete, or hazardous material such as paint, motor oil, chemicals, and batteries. Tires and large electronics also fall outside normal collection. These go to a neighborhood depository or a household hazardous waste site instead, and the city lists those locations and their hours. Sorting these out before your heavy trash day keeps the rest of the pile eligible.

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