El Dorado County, CA Trash & Recycling: Bin Placement Rules (2026)

550(A) starts from a screening requirement: containers, bags and recycling bins must be stored so they aren't readily visible from the public street, except during the actual window for collection. For curb service, that window is narrow: containers can go out no more than 12 hours before the normal collection time and must come back off the public thoroughfare within 12 hours after pickup. Households using yard service instead may place containers on their own property, in a spot agreed with the owner or tenant and the hauler, as long as it's no more than 100 feet from a public thoroughfare.

During heavy snow, generators must clear a path so containers can be returned to a point 20 feet back from the property line, and no container, bag or other waste may obstruct a public right-of-way at any time. Subsection (B) extends the screening rule to permanent front-yard container enclosures: any housing built for residential containers must meet design specifications approved jointly by the County Building Department and the Department of Planning and Building, and a nonconforming enclosure has to be removed. The Board of Supervisors can waive the design-specification requirement case by case, but only where the applicant shows financial inability to conform, documents a good-faith attempt to keep animals out of the waste some other way, and proves the waiver won't harm public health or safety.