Hey Austinites – the city needs your help: Residents frequently set their trash and recycling carts too close together, causing operational issues for Austin Resource Recovery collection crews. Carts should be placed five feet apart and away from mailboxes, cars and other objects. Please help us spread the word to your neighbors, friends and family.
Why five feet apart? The trucks that collect trash and recycling are equipped with automatic arms that pick up the carts. If carts are set too close together or too close to other objects, the drivers have to get out of their trucks to move the carts so the automatic arm can pick up the cart without bumping into or knocking over anything.
The crews can collect materials more safely and efficiently when your recycling cart, trash cart and yard trimmings are placed 5 feet apart from each other and from other objects like parked cars, mailboxes, etc.
What if I don’t have room to set my carts 5 feet apart? We understand that some areas won’t allow for this; simply set the carts as far apart as possible.
Other Important Collection Guidelines:
- Always place the handle of the cart toward your house.
- Your trash cart, recycling cart and yard trimmings must be placed at the curb by 6:30 a.m. on your collection day.
- Do not put recycling or yard trimmings in plastic bags. Plastic bags cannot be recycled in Single Stream Recycling and cannot be composted with yard trimmings.
- Help prevent litter by bagging your trash and allowing room for the cart lid to close.
- Extra bags of trash that do not fit in your trash cart with the lid closed must be placed next to the trash cart and tagged with an Extra Trash Sticker, which can be purchased at most local grocery stores ($4 + tax).
- Extra bags without a sticker will be charged a per-bag fee of $8 + tax.
- Do not put carts in the path of the mail truck or on top of a water meter.
For more information, visit austinrecycles.com.
