Indianapolis, IN Trash & Recycling: Bin Placement Rules (2026)

Chapter 601 of the Code of Indianapolis & Marion County governs how residential waste is contained and set out for pickup. Sec. 601-4 makes it unlawful for the occupant of any dwelling, house, building or structure to use containers or dumpsters that fail to meet the specifications the department of public works sets by rule, or to place them anywhere other than where DPW rules require so they stay readily accessible to city collectors or to haulers under contract with or licensed by the city.

Sec. 601-3 works alongside it: any person accumulating residential solid waste at a single-family residence who wants city or licensed-hauler pickup must prepare and set the waste out according to those same DPW rules, and waste set out this way is legally presumed abandoned, meaning the owner's rights in it end once it's collected. The chapter's definitions describe 'residential solid waste' as food waste, paper, cardboard, cans, plastics, cloth, wood, Christmas trees and yard trimmings generated in noncommercial settings, but exclude contractor debris, commercial tree-trimming waste, and bulk quantities of sod, dirt or land-clearing material, which need separate arrangements.

Enforcement of Chapter 601, including the container placement rule, is primarily the job of the division of property and land use services within the department of business and neighborhood services, per Sec. 601-2(f). Multifamily residences lost city collection service entirely as of February 1, 1995, under Sec. 601-12, so those buildings arrange their own containers and hauler while still following the DPW-compliant placement standard.