James City County, VA Trash & Recycling: Collection Schedule (2026)

James City County Code chapter 10 does not create a mandatory residential trash or recycling collection schedule. Section 10-31(a) only authorizes the county to offer an optional curbside recycling collection service to residential properties located within the recycling collection service area, an area the director of general services designates rather than one drawn in the ordinance itself. Because participation is optional, there is no county-wide pickup day set in the code.

For the properties that do subscribe, section 10-31(c) puts the actual collection days in the hands of the director: recyclable material is collected according to a schedule approved by the director, so residents must check with General Services, which administers the recycling program, rather than the code itself, for the current pickup day in their area. That flexibility lets the county adjust routes and days by service area over time without amending the ordinance. Residents outside the designated recycling collection service area, or who never subscribe to the optional service, have no county-run collection schedule at all under this chapter; James City County otherwise leaves solid-waste and recycling pickup to private arrangements or the licensed refuse removers regulated under sections 10-8 and 10-9.