Arcadia, CA Trash & Recycling: Collection Schedule (2026)

Section 5120.1 of the Arcadia Municipal Code puts the duty on the City, its agents and employees, or the contractor the City hires, to collect and remove all solid waste, organic waste and recyclables at the intervals the following subsections set. Material presented for collection must have been accumulated from or generated by the use of the property where it is collected, so a resident cannot use the curb to dispose of waste from somewhere else.

Section 5120.1.1 sets the residential rhythm: weekly at regular intervals for any private dwelling house or residence and for apartment houses with fewer than ten dwelling units, and semi-weekly for apartment houses with ten or more units. Section 5120.1.2 covers commercial customers. Hotels, restaurants and other places of business are collected daily, with Sundays and holidays excepted, but the owner or manager can request less frequent collection, and garbage is then collected less frequently from that address.

Service is not optional. Section 5120.7.1 requires the owners or occupants of every single-family house and every multiple-dwelling unit, including duplexes, triplexes, apartments and condominiums, to subscribe to and pay for collection service whether or not any waste is set out. The City Council sets uniform rates by resolution under Section 5120.7, and a residential refuse fee of $0.30 per month per residential unit is added to the bill to fund the source reduction and recycling element. Under Section 5120.7.2 the collector can refuse to collect from a customer who does not pay the fixed rates.

Collection days and hours are governed separately by Section 5120.9, which confines residential collection to Monday through Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The City Manager can authorize a temporary departure from those days and hours for a period not to exceed two weeks.