Costa Mesa, CA Trash & Recycling: Holiday Pickup Schedule (2026)

Costa Mesa's holiday collection rule sits inside the same service-standards section that sets weekly pickup, § 8-81(a): pickups 'shall be completed one day later than the regularly scheduled collection day' whenever a holiday falls on a route day. The ordinance lists exactly six holidays that trigger the shift: New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Any other city or federal holiday, such as Presidents' Day or Veterans Day, does not delay collection under this section.

The one-day slip applies to the entire route for that day, not just accounts that happen to observe the holiday, so a Monday holiday pushes that day's collection to Tuesday and can cascade the rest of the week's stops by a day, depending on how the franchisee restructures its route. The rule binds every permittee and franchisee operating under Chapter IV of Title 8, including the Costa Mesa Sanitary District's residential curbside contract, since § 8-81 applies to all recurring services in the city regardless of which entity performs them.

Section 8-81(a) also gives the director discretion to grant a temporary waiver from the service standards, including the holiday-shift rule, 'for good cause or as otherwise required by law.' That waiver authority is not self-executing: residents whose pickup does not resume on the expected shifted day should contact the hauler's required complaint line, staffed 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on collection days under § 8-81(f), or the public services department directly.