Milwaukee, WI Trash & Recycling: Holiday Pickup Schedule (2026)

The City of Milwaukee Department of Public Works (DPW) prints the holiday rule in its 2026 Sanitation Fall Mailer under the heading NO COLLECTIONS ON CITY HOLIDAYS. Thanksgiving is listed as November 26 and 27, 2026, which covers Thanksgiving Day on Thursday and the Friday after. Christmas is listed as December 24 and 25, 2026, so Christmas Eve on Thursday and Christmas Day on Friday both have no collections. New Year's Day is listed as January 1, 2027, a Friday. Veterans Day, Wednesday, November 11, 2026, and New Year's Eve, Thursday, December 31, 2026, are not on the list, and the mailer does not say in words what happens to collection on those two days.

The same list continues through the following year: Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 18, 2027, Good Friday on March 26, 2027, Memorial Day on May 31, 2027, Juneteenth on June 18, 2027, Independence Day on July 5, 2027, and Labor Day on September 6, 2027.

The make-up rule is a single sentence under Garbage and Recycling Reminders: Schedules shift after holidays. The mailer prints no number of days and no direction for the shift, so this page prints no make-up date either. It tells you to check your collection schedule at Milwaukee.gov/CollectionDay. The city's Collection Schedules page carries the sentence "Collection schedules may shift after holidays." and asks you to enter your address for information on your scheduled collection dates. Carts go to the collection point by 7 AM on collection day, and extra holiday-season recycling goes in a cardboard box placed next to the recycling cart.

The ordinance does not set the holiday calendar. Section 79-2-1-a says mixed solid waste of domestic origin, unless contents are specifically excluded, shall be collected by the department, provided such waste is properly handled, contained, stored and located in conformance with the rules of the commissioner. Section 79-19 authorizes the commissioner to make reasonable rules for the regulation and administration of chapter 79, and s. 79-1 defines the commissioner as the commissioner of public works. Section 79-8 conditions collection by the department on full compliance with the chapter and the commissioner's rules. None of these sections names a holiday, and the word does not appear in chapter 79 as printed in Volume 1, so the DPW mailer is the governing statement of which days have no collections.