Charleston, SC Trash & Recycling: Bin Placement Rules (2026)

City Code Sec. 14-46(a) caps residential garbage containers at three per household or dwelling unit. Each must be watertight metal or heavy-duty plastic with handles and a tight-fitting cover, holding no more than 40 gallons and weighing no more than 50 pounds loaded, unless the city sanitation division approves a different size in writing. Subsection (e) requires every container to stay tightly covered whenever it is set out for pickup, which is meant to keep loose trash out of the street and away from animals.

m. the evening before pickup, and trash generally cannot be set out earlier than two days ahead of the scheduled date. that same day. Subsection (g)(3) fixes location: containers and any excess waste must sit at the curb or edge of pavement, visible to the collection crew, not tucked behind a fence or screen where crews cannot see them. The city environmental services division is not responsible for missed pickups if a resident's container was not out by the deadline. Screening a cart from street view is a resident's choice, but it cannot block the container from the crew's line of sight or move it off the curb line described in (g)(3).