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

PMC § 8.16.310, "Collection, Business establishment," requires garbage and rubbish at any place of business dealing in perishable food commodities, including hotels, restaurants, fruit or vegetable markets, and fish, meat or poultry markets, or other businesses handling vegetable or animal matter subject to decomposition and decay, to be collected daily, except Sundays and legal holidays, and only between five a.m. and five p.m. That Sunday-and-holiday carve-out is not unique to perishable-food businesses: PMC § 8.16.210, 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.

The perishable-food daily schedule and its holiday exception exist because that waste spoils quickly and cannot wait for the once-a-week minimum that PMC § 8.16.320 sets for ordinary households; the two schedules serve different risk levels rather than one superseding the other. The Chapter 8.16 sections reviewed here do not specify a make-up or shifted pickup day for the standard weekly residential route when a holiday falls on a scheduled day; that route is governed only by the once-a-week minimum and six a.m. to six p.m. window in § 8.16.320, 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.