Porter County, IN Trash & Recycling: Dumpster Rules (2026)

33, OS-03: Outdoor Storage; Trash Receptacles, part of Chapter 5's Zoning District Development Standards under the county's 2007 Unified Development Ordinance. The container has to sit on a poured concrete or paved slab, not gravel or bare ground. It must be screened on every side by a fence or wall built from wood, brick, stone or a similar material matching the primary structure's exterior, and that screen has to stand at least six feet tall, taller if a lower fence would leave the container visible from an adjacent lot or the public right-of-way.

Section OS-03(A)(4) folds in the county's separate setback rules (Chapter 5, § SB) so the enclosure itself cannot sit closer to a property line than the underlying zoning district allows. The related OS-04 screening standard for other outdoor storage additionally calls for a shrub planted every ten feet of fencing that faces neighbors or a street, reaching six feet at maturity, so inspectors reviewing a Site Plan or Improvement Location Permit commonly expect landscaping alongside the fence too. A property owner who installs a dumpster without the paved pad or required screening is out of compliance the moment the Plan Commission or its Executive Director inspects the site, and the standard reappears by name in the county's own civil zoning violation list.