Durham, NC Trash & Recycling: Collection Schedule (2026)

Section 58-31 requires all householders, stores, institutions, restaurants, markets, hotels, and other places generating refuse to provide a proper receptacle as defined in the director's rules, unless the city supplies one instead. Section 58-32 limits the director to two collection methods: roll-out garbage collection and sanitary bulk container garbage collection service. The actual mechanics, container size and type, collection location, frequency of collection, and how refuse and recyclables must be separated, are set not by the ordinance itself but by rules and regulations the director adopts under Section 58-2, subject to the city manager's approval; Section 58-2 makes it unlawful to fail, neglect, or refuse to comply with those rules once adopted.

Section 58-3 protects the city's exclusive collection franchise by making it unlawful for anyone other than a person authorized by the director to haul away refuse or recyclables that have been set out for city collection, and a related provision bars letting a dog run loose on scheduled collection days in a way that spills or scatters set-out containers. High-volume generators, clustered residential developments such as apartments and condominiums, sites city trucks cannot safely access, and commercial developments with four or more businesses on one site must instead use stationary bulk containers under Section 58-65, sized by the number of dwelling units or businesses served rather than by the standard roll-out schedule.