Jersey City, NJ Trash & Recycling: Dumpster Rules (2026)

§ 287-12 of the Jersey City Code regulates demolition containers and dumpsters placed in the public right-of-way. Subsection A requires a permit from the Division of Traffic and Street Maintenance before anyone places or uses a demolition container or dumpster on the sidewalks or streets of the city: placement without that permit is itself a violation, independent of whatever construction or cleanup work the container supports. Subsection B requires the area beneath and around the container to be kept clean at all times and cleaned immediately once the container is removed.

Subsection C limits how full a container can be: it cannot be filled higher than four inches from the top edge, and it must bear a state-assigned identification number along with the name, address and telephone number of the person responsible for it, plus at least one reflector at each end and an iridescent stripe measuring four feet by four inches. Subsection D requires any demolition container or dumpster being transported while it contains refuse to be kept covered so material doesn't fall or blow onto the street.

The section cross-references Chapter 296, Streets and Sidewalks § 296-15, and Chapter 108, Buildings, Demolition of, so a contractor placing a roll-off for a demolition job may need to satisfy those chapters' requirements as well as the § 287-12 permit. Enforcement runs through the Department of Public Safety's Division of Quality of Life and Division of Police and the Department of Health and Human Services' Division of Environmental Health under § 287-31, and violations are prosecuted under Chapter 1's solid-waste penalty tier at § 1-25.