Doña Ana County, NM Trash & Recycling: Bin Placement Rules (2026)

Section 287-4(A)(3) of the Code of Doña Ana County sets the baseline standard for every waste container used on a property in the unincorporated county: containers 'utilized for storage of solid waste on the premises, and for transportation of solid waste to a disposal facility, must be designed so as to fully enclose and contain the solid waste, and must be leakproof for storage or transport of any solid waste.' The same fully-enclosed, leakproof standard is repeated for residential customers of private sanitation companies under § 287-4(B)(2), covering the container while it sits on the premises between weekly collections, and again for commercial users under § 287-4(C)(2).

Multiple-family dwellings are treated as commercial users for container purposes under § 287-4(A)(4). The chapter does not set a required curbside placement distance, a screening or fencing requirement, or a specific set-out or retrieval time for residential carts; those standards, where they exist for a subdivision, typically come from an HOA's covenants or a private hauler's own service agreement rather than the County Code. What the Code does require is that whatever bin a household or business uses, it must keep waste fully contained and never leak between pickups, and any accumulation that escapes containment can trigger the general prohibited-accumulation rule in § 287-3(A).