New Bedford, MA Trash & Recycling: Collection Schedule (2026)

Section 16-76(a) puts the director of the Department of Facilities and Fleet Management in charge of setting New Bedford's regular solid waste and recyclables collection schedule and requires the city to publicize it, with the calendar attached to the department's rules and regulations rather than printed in the ordinance itself. The ordinance defines eligible 'customers' at § 16-71 as owners and residents of one-, two-, three-, four-, five- and six-family residences, identified mixed-use structures, public housing units, and eligible commercial businesses, so larger buildings or ineligible commercial properties fall outside the city's curbside service and must arrange private hauling under § 16-80.

Once a property is a customer, § 16-74(a) and (b) make participation mandatory in substance: every owner must provide sufficient solid waste and recycling receptacles to hold everything generated between collection days, store and dispose of it in a clean and sanitary manner, and keep containers closed and not overflowing. Customers must place solid waste curbside only on the day and at the time scheduled for collection per § 16-74(f), and only material actually generated within city limits qualifies. The director of health, under § 16-72(d), has separate enforcement authority over storage and collection compliance, working alongside the facilities and fleet management director who runs the collection program day to day.