Monterey Park, CA Trash & Recycling: Bin Placement Rules (2026)

Monterey Park Municipal Code Section 6.08.060 governs how residential refuse, recycling and yard-waste containers are used and set out. Every occupant of residential property must use only the containers the city's contracted servicer supplies: no substitute cans or bins are allowed. Refuse and recyclables (other than yard waste) go in the black container, yard waste goes in the green container, and no container may go out for pickup if its contents weigh more than three hundred pounds. Multi-family properties on bin service must place all refuse and recyclables in the servicer-supplied bin rather than individual carts. If a household's containers run short of capacity between pickups, the code requires the resident to subscribe to additional service set by the servicer to keep vectors from breeding in overflow refuse.

Placement is timed and positioned precisely. A container or bulky item cannot go onto the parkway earlier than twenty-four hours before the normal collection date set by the director of public works, and anything not collected, including bulky items, must be pulled back off the public right-of-way by midnight of the scheduled collection day. Once out, carts must sit with their wheels against the curb and at least one foot apart from each other; where there is no curb, wheels face the lot, and alley collection points sit as close to the alley right-of-way line as practicable. No occupant may move a bin or debris box the servicer has already placed. Community and Economic Development's code enforcement division and the Public Works Department administer these rules, and a violation of the code is a misdemeanor under Section 4.10.010 unless the city cites it as an infraction instead.