Bellflower, CA Property Maintenance: Trash Bin Storage (2026)

The City of Bellflower regulates where residents may store their trash, recycling and yard-waste carts. Under the Municipal Code, garbage cans, yard-waste containers and recycling containers that are kept, placed or stored in front or side yards and visible from public streets are not permitted, except at times when solid waste, yard waste, or recyclables are scheduled for collection by the city or its permitted collector. In practice this means residents may roll carts to the curb around collection day but must store them out of street view (for example, in a side yard behind a gate, a garage, or a screened area) the rest of the week. The rule complements Bellflower's broader property-maintenance and zoning standards, which prohibit outdoor storage in any front or street-side yard or in any area required to be landscaped. Bellflower's franchised hauler, CR&R Environmental Services, provides single-family residents a three-cart system: a blue cart for recyclables, a green cart for organics/yard waste, and a black cart for general trash. Carts should be set out by the morning of the scheduled collection day and returned to their screened storage location afterward. Improperly stored or out-of-view containers can be cited as a code-enforcement violation. Bellflower's screening rule is a city-specific standard layered on top of the collection service contract with CR&R.