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

Mobile's Unified Development Code regulates dumpsters used for ongoing waste or recycling service on commercial and multi-family sites (construction dumpsters are excluded). A dumpster can't sit in a front yard, a required protection buffer, a riparian buffer zone, the street right-of-way, or along street frontages, and the collection truck must service it entirely from the paved site: never the right-of-way. Every dumpster needs an enclosure at least as tall as the dumpster (capped at eight feet) built of wood, brick, masonry, or matching materials, with any gate opening outward and closed except during pickup, unless the dumpster is hidden from the street and neighboring residential property.