Roanoke County, VA Trash & Recycling: Dumpster Rules (2026)

Roanoke County Code § 30-92-5(F) is titled "Additional screening requirements" and sits inside the zoning ordinance's Screening, Landscaping and Buffer Yards article. Clause (F)1 is unambiguous: refuse service areas, meaning dumpsters and containers, along with outdoor storage areas, must be screened from surrounding views in every zoning district in the county, following the specifications in the Roanoke County Design Handbook, and the screening must stand a minimum of six feet tall. The same subsection separately requires ground-level and rooftop mechanical equipment to be screened or landscaped (§ 30-92-5(F)2), and requires commercial and industrial uses to screen stored, maintained, repaired, processed, fabricated, dismantled or salvaged articles and materials from view (§ 30-92-5(F)3), though retail items displayed for sale are exempt from that third clause.

Screening plantings installed to meet the dumpster-screening requirement do not count toward the separate 35 percent crown-coverage landscaping requirement elsewhere in § 30-92-5(E). Compliance is reviewed by the Department of Development Services as part of site development plan approval under § 30-90, so a commercial or multifamily project's dumpster enclosure location and height must appear on the approved plan before a zoning permit issues. Because § 30-92 is part of the zoning ordinance rather than the separate solid-waste chapter (Chapter 20, which governs collection service and is expressly inapplicable to the Town of Vinton under § 20-21), the screening duty falls on property owners and site developers, not on the county's waste hauler.