Southfield, MI Trash & Recycling: Collection Schedule (2026)

Sec. 2.3 of the Southfield City Code puts the Department of Public Works in charge of collecting refuse and waste materials from residential units on a schedule the city publishes and can change. Four categories are carved out of that mandatory service: liquid wastes; hazardous material, including explosives, active chemicals, radioactive or highly flammable substances; tree trunks or branches wider than three inches in diameter or longer than four feet; and refuse from new construction or from extensive repairs or alterations. The code treats all four as commercial rubbish that the contractor performing the work must remove, not household trash the city hauls for free.

There is a homeowner carve-out inside that carve-out: work a resident does personally, the kind ordinarily done by the householder rather than a contractor, is still picked up by the city as long as it totals fifty pounds or less. Collection isn't free even where the city does provide it. Sec. 2.7 requires residential property owners to pay a collection charge set by council resolution each year, which is certified to the assessor and billed with the property's municipal taxes; a newly completed home occupied after July 1 pays a prorated share for the balance of that fiscal year.

Before a hauler can pick up refuse commercially inside city limits at all, Sec. 2.2 requires a refuse collection and transportation license from the city clerk, issued only after the director of public services certifies the applicant's equipment and ability to run the business properly.