Brunswick County, NC Trash & Recycling: Dumpster Rules (2026)

1 of the county's Unified Development Ordinance applies its dumpster, recycling and trash-handling standards to all nonresidential development, multifamily development, campgrounds and mobile home parks in unincorporated Brunswick County; single-family homes are outside its reach. 2 requires dumpsters, along with other site utilities such as HVAC and mechanical equipment, to sit on the same lot as the use they serve unless the Planning Board approves shared facilities, and it bars placing any such facility inside a required front yard. Dumpsters and trash-handling facilities must also stay outside any required buffer and keep at least five feet from every property line, whichever distance is greater.

4. 4 requires dumpster and recycling enclosures to be designed with access to a street or alley that interferes as little as possible with traffic while still allowing efficient collection service. 5 bars counting dumpster or trash-handling space toward a site's required off-street parking or loading space totals, and bars the reverse as well. 6 to provide water-quality treatment for runoff from their trash-handling areas. Because the UDO regulates only unincorporated county parcels, a dumpster pad inside Leland, Southport, Oak Island, Shallotte, Holden Beach, Ocean Isle Beach, Sunset Beach, Calabash or Boiling Spring Lakes falls under that town's own code.