Petaluma, CA Trash & Recycling: Holiday Pickup Schedule (2026)
Key Facts
- Applies to
- Perishable-food businesses (restaurants, markets, hotels)
- Frequency
- Daily except Sundays and legal holidays
- Hours
- 5:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
- General business rate rule
- Also excludes Sundays and holidays (§8.16.210)
- Residential holiday shift
- Not specified in the sections reviewed
Summary
Petaluma's code carves Sundays and legal holidays out of its daily commercial garbage rule. PMC § 8.16.310 requires perishable-food businesses like restaurants, markets and hotels to have their garbage collected every day except Sundays and holidays, between five a.m. and five p.m., a different schedule than the weekly rule that applies to homes.
The resolution shall provide a monthly rate for regular daily collection, except for Sundays and holidays, for containers not exceeding thirty gallons in capacity. ... All garbage and rubbish accumulated at any place of business dealing in perishable food commodities including hotels, restaurants, fruit or vegetable markets, fish, meat or poultry markets, or other business places or institutions dealing in or using vegetable or animal matter subject to decomposition and decay shall be collected and removed daily, except Sundays and legal holidays, and between the hours of five a.m. and five p.m.
Official source re-checked September 8, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: current through Ordinance 2931 NCS, passed July 6, 2026).
Full Breakdown
m. 210, which authorizes the city council to set maximum rates for business establishments generally, describes the standard service the same way, as a monthly rate for "regular daily collection, except for Sundays and holidays," for containers up to thirty gallons, confirming that commercial routes citywide pause on Sundays and legal holidays. 320 sets for ordinary households; the two schedules serve different risk levels rather than one superseding the other. 320, without a stated holiday-shift mechanism, so residents should confirm any specific rescheduling with the city's contracted hauler rather than relying on the code text for that detail.
Violations & Fines
A perishable-food business that fails to have garbage collected on the daily schedule required by § 8.16.310, or a hauler that collects on a day or at hours the section does not authorize, violates Chapter 8.16 and is punishable as a misdemeanor under PMC § 8.16.110: a fine of up to $1,000, imprisonment in county jail for up to six months, or both, enforced through the city's Chapter 1.10 through 1.15 code enforcement procedures.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Petaluma's garbage code give restaurants a day off on holidays?
Why do perishable-food businesses get daily pickup instead of weekly?
Does the general business garbage rate also skip Sundays and holidays?
If a holiday falls on my regular residential pickup day, does the code say when it gets picked up instead?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Petaluma
California rules heatmap·Compare Petaluma to another location·View the California trash & recycling overview
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