Santa Fe, NM Trash & Recycling: Holiday Pickup Schedule (2026)
Key Facts
- Commercial front and rear load
- Monday through Friday including holidays; Saturday for six-day customers
- Commercial roll-off
- Monday through Friday including holidays
- Roll-off temporary change
- Submit to the City not less than one week ahead
- Residential Thanksgiving 2026
- Thursday, November 26: all collection days moved back one day
- Residential Veterans Day 2026
- Wednesday, November 11: all collection days moved back one day
- Residential normal days
- Monday-Thursday; carts curbside by 7 a.m.
- Christmas Day and January 1, 2027
- Not listed in the residential holiday table or Commercial Collection page
Summary
Santa Fe's code sets commercial front-load, rear-load and roll-off service for Monday through Friday including holidays. City residential customers follow a separate dated table: Veterans Day (Wednesday, November 11) and Thanksgiving (Thursday, November 26) are both listed as "All collection days moved back one day." Neither the residential holiday table nor the Commercial Collection page prints a Christmas Day or January 1, 2027 collection entry.
L.Front loading and rear loading service shall be provided Monday through Friday including holidays. Saturday service will be available for customers requiring six (6) days of service.M.Roll-off service shall be provided Monday through Friday including holidays. Requests for temporary changes in collection scheduling shall be submitted to the city not less than one (1) week in advance of the requested change.N.The customer or customer's representative shall complete a written request to the city for cancellations of service or to request long term or permanent changes in service.O.Requests for additional special service may be made by phone to the city during normal business hours, within two (2) city working days of the requested date of service.
Full Breakdown
Section 21-4.6 SFCC 1987 sets the conditions of service for commercial and multi-family residential customers. Subsection L provides that front loading and rear loading service "shall be provided Monday through Friday including holidays," with Saturday service available for customers requiring six days. Subsection M gives roll-off service the same Monday through Friday window, holidays included. Nothing in the section names a holiday, prints a holiday date or carves out Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year's Day. The Environmental Services Division (ESD) repeats both rules on its Commercial Collection page.
City of Santa Fe residential trash and recycling customers follow a separate, dated schedule. ESD's "Holiday Collection Schedule 2026" table has three columns: Holiday, Date Observed and Schedule Change. It lists Indigenous Peoples' Day (Monday, October 12), Veterans Day (Wednesday, November 11) and Thanksgiving (Thursday, November 26), each with "All collection days moved back one day." MLK Day (Monday, January 19), Memorial Day (Monday, May 25) and Labor Day (Monday, September 7) carry the same wording. The first row, New Year's Day (Thursday, January 1), reads "Moved to Friday pickup."
The standing rule on the same page: "On City of Santa Fe-observed holidays, there will be no residential trash and recycling collection." The collection scheduled for a holiday moves to the next day of the week, and the remaining collection days move forward as well, depending on what day the holiday falls on. Normal residential days are Monday-Thursday. The city's worked examples are labeled 2024. In its Memorial Day example, Monday's collection moves to Tuesday, Tuesday's to Wednesday, Wednesday's to Thursday, and Operators work Friday to collect the Thursday routes. In its Thanksgiving example, Operators work Friday to collect Thursday's routes and no other routes that week are affected. The 2026 table prints no examples of its own.
Christmas and New Year's Day are the gaps. Christmas Day is Friday, December 25, 2026, yet the residential holiday table ends at Thanksgiving with no Christmas row. Its New Year's Day row is the Thursday, January 1 date at the start of 2026, and New Year's Day 2027 is Friday, January 1 with no row of its own. For businesses, the code text has no holiday exception, and the Commercial Collection page prints no dated Christmas or January 1, 2027 notice. Residential carts must be curbside no later than 7 a.m. on pickup day.
Violations & Fines
Neither subsection L nor subsection M sets a fine for a skipped or shifted holiday pickup. For commercial service the code does print consequences elsewhere in the section: a blocked container that cannot be emptied draws "a special service fee" for a subsequent visit (21-4.6(F)), the city can suspend service when snow and ice are not cleared from the path (21-4.6(G)), and the city can suspend service for enclosures or containers in disrepair (21-4.6(H)). Fee amounts are not printed there; an ESD representative helps determine applicable fees.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is trash picked up on Thanksgiving in Santa Fe?
Is trash picked up on Christmas Day or New Year's Day 2027?
What is the make-up day for a missed residential holiday pickup?
Do businesses and apartment dumpsters follow the residential holiday table?
How do I hear about holiday changes in Santa Fe?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Santa Fe
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