Las Cruces, NM Trash & Recycling: Collection Schedule (2026)

Section 25-36, Exclusive right of collection, locks residential, commercial, and recyclable waste collection to the city and its contracted or franchised agents. It is unlawful for any other hauler to collect residentially generated waste, commercially generated waste, or recyclable material inside city limits, and the utilities director can require solid waste and recyclables to be kept in separate containers. The city manager retains authority to arrange collection by another method through a special agreement if the city cannot provide the service itself. Because the code delegates the actual mechanics of scheduling to the Utilities Board rather than fixing a citywide day, Sec.

25-37, Frequency of collection, simply states that the frequency and hours of residential and commercial collection are set out in the solid waste tariffs adopted by resolution of the board, which the utilities director administers under Sec. 25-3. That means a resident's specific pickup day is a tariff assignment tied to their address and route, not a number printed in the ordinance itself, and any change to route frequency comes through a Utilities Board resolution rather than a Code amendment. This structure lets the city adjust collection days for growth or route efficiency without going back to the city council for an ordinance change each time, while keeping the underlying mandatory, exclusive-service framework fixed in the Code of Ordinances.