Lake County, CA Trash & Recycling: Collection Schedule (2026)

Lake County Code Sec. 2 makes it unlawful for any person, firm, or corporation to collect or dispose of garbage belonging to someone else unless the County of Lake has granted permission through a duly executed contract, the county's franchise hauler system. This traces to Ordinance No. 370 from 1954. Three exceptions carved out by Ordinance No. 760 in 1973 keep the rule from reaching ordinary self-service: a person or firm is deemed to be hauling their own garbage, and stays outside the contract requirement, when the waste was created on their own property and is hauled without charge by the owner or a full-time employee for whom hauling is only an incidental duty; anyone who hauls a neighbor's garbage without pay or consideration, as a friendly or neighborly gesture, is likewise exempt; and grass, weeds, tree trimmings, construction debris or demolition debris may be hauled by whoever was hired or contracted to cut, trim, mow, construct, demolish or clean up the property, as an incident of that job.

Properties that do subscribe to commercial garbage service must also keep an approved container on hand under Sec. 1, in a spot easily accessible to the collector. The franchise structure exists so the Board of Supervisors can hold a single contracted hauler, rather than an unregulated market of collectors, accountable for service standards and rates across the unincorporated county.