Tempe, AZ Trash & Recycling: Dumpster Rules (2026)

Section 28-36 covers the roll-off containers and compactors that licensed contractors supply to Tempe businesses instead of City-issued carts. Subsection (a) requires every garbage container a contractor supplies, including roll-off boxes and compactors, to be painted and kept clean, neat and sanitary at all times, and to carry the contractor's name and telephone number legibly on the container. Subsection (b) puts the sizing decision in the Public Works Director's hands: a commercial establishment must maintain enough containers to meet its actual solid waste disposal needs, as the Director determines them, not simply what the business prefers.

Subsection (c) controls placement: commercial garbage has to go in standard containers or compactors, and those containers must sit in inconspicuous locations as determined by the Public Works Director, keeping roll-offs and compactors out of customer sightlines rather than parked at the front of a lot. These placement and maintenance duties track the container ownership marking rule in Section 28-21(e), which requires every container placed in the City to be clearly marked with the operating company's name and phone number and lets the City impound a container it cannot trace to a permitted hauler.