New Brunswick, NJ Trash & Recycling: Bin Placement Rules (2026)

Section 8.40.040(A) of the New Brunswick Municipal Code applies to every owner or occupant of residential and commercial property. Solid waste, solid waste containers, recyclable materials and recycling containers cannot be left at the collection site earlier than five p.m. on the day before collection, and all of it must be removed from the site by the end of the collection day. The only exception printed is for dumpsters provided at schools and other public buildings. Each occupant is responsible for compliance.

Section 8.40.040(B) fixes where the containers go: within five feet of the improved roadway, or as the Department of Public Works directs, and never on an improved roadway, driveway, sidewalk or traveled way. On corner lots, containers go at the improved roadway most convenient to the collection vehicle unless the department directs otherwise.

The container rules are specific. Under § 8.40.040(C), trash containers are metal or plastic with a tight-fitting cover and handles, holding not more than thirty-two gallons, or plastic bags not less than three mils thick with a minimum of 13 gallon capacity, tied and bound. No residential container or bag can weigh more than fifty pounds at the curb. Drums, barrels, cardboard cartons, baskets and paper bags are not acceptable and will not be collected. A residential user cannot put out more than three containers per dwelling unit, not counting recycling, under § 8.40.040(E).

Storage matters as much as set-out. Section 8.40.040(C)(6) requires any container stored in a front or side yard, including on corner lots, to sit inside an enclosure that fully protects it from pedestrian traffic or behind opaque fencing or shrubbery to the height of the container. Section 8.40.140(A)(5) makes open or overflowing waste disposal bins unlawful. In the automated Container Collection District, § 8.40.030(D)(4) requires closed cart lids, storage out of the public right-of-way and out of its view, and snow cleared from the carts so they can be placed at the curb.