Texas City, TX Trash & Recycling: Bin Placement Rules (2026)

Section 53.06 of the Texas City Code of Ordinances, adopted by the City Commission, controls where garbage receptacles sit and when. If the residence, structure or place of business backs onto an alley, the owner, occupant, tenant or lessee keeps the receptacles in the alley adjacent to the property line. If no alley is available, or collecting from the alley is not practicable, the receptacles go in front of the premises within three feet of the street. The clock is fixed in the text: receptacles must be at the designated pickup point no later than 7:00 a.m. on the day of collection, and after collection they come off the collection location and stay on the premises, no closer to the street than the front of the residence, structure or place of business, no later than 9:00 p.m. on the evening of collection.

Commercial containers follow a different rule: they are located at the direction of the Refuse Services Department. Where a street has no curbing and surface drainage runs through open roadside ditches, the collection point is the shoulder between the edge of the pavement and the ditch, and no container may ever be placed where it interferes with the normal flow of drainage. Where containers are prone to overturn and spill, the city can require a portable, movable or stationary rack, but no stationary rack is required or permitted in front of a residence. The Director can authorize a different placement for a customer with a mental or physical infirmity or another circumstance of severe hardship.

Property owners carry the compliance duty for occupants, tenants and lessees under division (E). Two neighboring sections shape the containers themselves: § 53.04 caps a residential container at 33 gallons and the combined weight of garbage and container at 50 pounds, and § 53.05 requires lids and covers to stay secure and fastened. Section 53.06 carries a penalty cross-reference to § 53.99.