Bessemer, AL Trash & Recycling: Dumpster Rules (2026)

Chapter 90, Article II, Division 2 of the Bessemer Code sets a hard numeric cap on how many trash cans a business can keep outside. Section 90-69(c) caps any premises devoted to business, commercial or industrial use at four garbage or rubbish cans at one time, whether they sit on the property or in an adjacent public way where cans are permitted. That cap is not a suggestion: once an operation genuinely produces more waste than four cans can hold, section 90-71 requires the owner, lessee or operator to provide a special garbage and rubbish container, in practice a dumpster or roll-off box, and to arrange and pay for its own servicing rather than simply adding more cans.

Section 90-72 then bars letting garbage or rubbish pile up inside that special container unless collection has actually been arranged, and section 90-73 puts an affirmative duty on the owner, lessee or managing agent to keep the ground around the container clean. If the street superintendent, or the county health officer's local administrative head, gives written notice that the container area has become littered, unclean or unsanitary, the responsible party has just 24 hours to clean it up. These sections trace back to Code 1973 §§ 19-16 through 19-19, so the four-can/special-container split has been part of Bessemer's sanitation code for decades.

A business that scatters extra cans along the curb to avoid a dumpster contract, or lets a dumpster pad go unmaintained, is exposed under both the numeric cap and the cleanup-notice provisions.