Santa Maria, CA Trash & Recycling: Collection Schedule (2026)

10, last amended by Ordinance 2024-05 effective May 16, 2024, fixes the minimum pickup frequency for every service type the City runs. Residential trash is guaranteed at least once per calendar week, but the Director of Utilities can order more frequent pickups at any premises found to need it for proper cleanliness, so commercial accounts and other non-residential properties are not capped at once a week. Residential recycling runs on a biweekly, every-other-week cycle and lands on the same day as that address's regular trash pickup unless the Director sets a different schedule.

Commercial recycling is not fixed to a calendar at all: the section leaves it to be scheduled for collection as needed by the Director of Utilities or a designee, which lets the City size commercial pickup frequency to each business's actual volume. The same as-needed standard governs both commercial and residential organics recycling, the green-waste and food-scraps stream added under Chapter 8-21. 11 gives the Director broader authority to set the rules and methods of collection generally, subject to City Manager approval, so the specific day-of-week routes residents see on their utility bill flow from that rulemaking power layered on top of the frequency floor fixed here.