Gastonia, NC Trash & Recycling: Bin Placement Rules (2026)

The city's solid waste division owns every rollout cart used for residential and city-served nonresidential trash and recycling collection, and Code of Ordinances section 11-57(2) sets the timing window: carts cannot go to the curb earlier than the day before the scheduled pickup, and any cart left at curbside must be pulled back by midnight on collection day itself. The recyclables program runs on the identical clock under section 11-59(2), since biweekly recycling carts follow the same curbside rules as trash carts. Placement is separately restricted under section 11-60: a full cart cannot weigh more than 200 pounds excluding the container's own weight, and under subsection (7) no rollout container may be stored in front of a home or ahead of the building setback line closest to the street, which functions as the city's placement rule for street-facing storage.

Access matters too: section 11-60(6) lets crews skip a cart that requires unlocking a gate or door, climbing multiple steps, or getting past a loose animal, and on one-way, dead-end or narrow streets the administrator can order carts to one side and cars parked on the other. Spills caused by a resident must be cleaned up immediately, and residents cannot paint house numbers or names on a cart because it remains city property. Requests for an additional cart at the same address go through the administrator under section 11-63.