National City, CA Trash & Recycling: Collection Schedule (2026)

Section 7.10.020 of the National City Municipal Code makes trash service mandatory. Subsection A requires every owner or occupant in charge of any private property where rubbish, garbage or refuse is generated to subscribe to regular collection service by the city's designated rubbish hauler. The only alternative is an alternate means of collection individually approved by the city council. Subsection B makes it unlawful to permit, suffer or allow the accumulation of rubbish, garbage or refuse on the property for a period in excess of one week. Subsection C puts the duty on the property owner when the person or entity in charge of the property cannot readily be determined.

Chapter 7.10 is built around a city contract. Its cross-reference note states that the city contracts with private disposal firms for the collection of garbage and refuse, with copies on file in the office of the city clerk. Section 7.10.050.A requires receptacles for garbage or rubbish placed for collection to be those provided by the city rubbish collection contractor, and Section 7.10.050.E requires recyclable materials defined in Chapter 9.52 to be separated from garbage and rubbish and placed in the recycling collection container where the contractor supplies one. The chapter does not print a collection weekday. It refers to scheduled collection in Section 7.10.120, which requires all containers to stay on private property between collection days and bars placing one at the curb before four p.m. on the day before collection.

The definitions in Section 7.10.010 decide what the service covers. Garbage is organic refuse of fruit, vegetable and animal matter prepared and intended for human consumption and not so used. Rubbish includes paper, rags, leaves, glass, cans, ashes, and tree and vine trimmings, but not plaster, rock, sand, dirt, automobile frames or fenders, construction waste, discarded water heaters or furniture. Multiple residential unit means a building with three or more separate family dwellings, or three or more residential units on one lot. Section 7.10.150 also bars anyone other than the owner, a city employee or the city's collection contractor from disturbing a receptacle or its contents, and Section 7.10.160 makes it unlawful to hinder collectors' access to containers.