Palmdale, CA Trash & Recycling: Collection Schedule (2026)

Section 5.52.240, "Residential Collection - Mandatory Service - Exception," is the backbone of Palmdale's solid waste system: subsection (A) requires every residential householder or owner to use the collector holding the city's exclusive franchise for both solid waste and recyclable materials. This is not an opt-in program; it applies automatically to every occupied residential premises in the city.

Subsection (B) carves out one narrow exception. The mandatory service rule does not apply to a resident who is concurrently operating a business in the city under a current business license or permit and who already has a separate contract with the exclusive franchised collector for commercial or industrial solid waste handling and recycling, meaning that household's waste is covered under its business account instead of a residential one. Outside that specific overlap, subsection (C) closes the door entirely: no residential householder or owner may enter into an agreement for residential refuse or recyclable materials collection with any vendor other than the city's exclusive franchisee.

This mandatory-service structure is what funds and organizes the rest of Article VI, including the weekly pickup minimum in Section 5.52.260 and the container standards in Sections 5.52.270 and 5.52.280. The franchise itself traces to Ordinance 977 in 1992 and was amended by Ordinance 1123 in 1998 to refine the mandatory-service language, meaning Palmdale has run trash collection as a single-provider exclusive franchise system for more than three decades rather than allowing competing private haulers to solicit residential customers.