Shelby County, TN Trash & Recycling: Dumpster Rules (2026)

Shelby County Code Sec. 44-64 lets a property use private pickup and disposal service with a bulk-type garbage and trash container, the kind of large dumpster or roll-off used by commercial sites and apartment complexes, in place of individual household cans. " That puts the Memphis and Shelby County Health Department in the position of approving how often a dumpster is emptied, where and how it is serviced, and what kind of container qualifies, rather than letting a property owner or hauler set those terms unilaterally.

" That is a hard separation requirement between putrescible garbage, food waste and similar organic refuse, which must go in the containers covered by Sec. 44-63's watertight, galvanized-or-plastic 20 to 30 gallon can standard, and non-putrescible trash or rubbish, which goes in the bulk-type or dumpster container approved under Sec. 44-64. This section traces back to Priv. Acts 1973, ch. 86, § 9, and was carried into the 1992 County Code as former § 28-55. It sits in Division 2, the Sanitary Code, which by Sec.

44-56 applies only outside the corporate limits of Memphis, Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown, Millington, Arlington and Lakelane, so a business inside any of those cities follows that municipality's own dumpster rules, not this county provision. Violations of this division, including using an unapproved container or dumping garbage in a trash-only container, are enforced under Sec. 00 per offense.