Kauai County, HI Trash & Recycling: Bin Placement Rules (2026)

Kaua'i County Code Chapter 21, Article 2 governs where refuse containers must sit for pickup. Section 21-2.1 requires manually-served properties to keep receptacles built of durable galvanized metal, plastic or another Engineer-approved material, holding between twenty and thirty-two gallons, with a top diameter at least two inches wider than the bottom, two lifting handles and a tight-fitting lid, and caps the loaded weight, including the trash, at seventy-five pounds. Section 21-2.2(a) then sets placement rules by service type. Automated cart customers must leave the County-issued cart at the curb in the location the County Engineer designates; if a collection truck operator finds a cart blocked by a parked vehicle or placed somewhere collection is infeasible, the operator can bypass it and skip that pickup entirely.

Manually-served properties must place receptacles at the boundary between the premises and the nearest public highway or street, or, where conditions warrant, up to twenty feet inside the property line; in business districts without a yard, containers can sit on the sidewalk or road shoulder only during collection hours. The County Engineer can waive the twenty-foot limit to relieve hardship on individual homeowners, weighing the width, distance and turnaround space on private roads. During impassable weather or other unusual conditions, the Engineer can direct residents to move receptacles to the nearest accessible collection point.

Curbside recycling participants receive a separate blue-lidded cart for recyclables, placed at the curb as the Engineer prescribes. Section 21-2.3(e) separately makes it unlawful to park any vehicle within six feet of a collection container in a way that blocks removal or the approach to it.