Syracuse, NY Trash & Recycling: Holiday Pickup Schedule (2026)

Section 14-18(a)(1) is the standing rule for household waste. Collection is every seventh day by D.P.W., and unless the commissioner determines otherwise, collection is delayed one day following Christmas, New Year's Day, Martin Luther King's Birthday, Memorial day, Independence Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving Day. Section 14-14 defines D.P.W. as the city of Syracuse Department of Public Works, the commissioner of public works, or any designated representative of the commissioner. For households on city-issued carts, Article 6 repeats the rule: § 14-68(a)(9)a for trash and § 14-68(b)(9)a for recycling say the program "shall follow the city's normal one day delay pickup schedule" for the same holidays, Independence Day included.

The department's 2026 City Services Guide prints its working list under the heading "HOLIDAY TRASH AND RECYCLING PICKUP SCHEDULE" on both the A week calendar (page 6) and the B week calendar (page 7): "Pickup will be one day late for the remainder of the week on the following holidays." The list reads New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. The guide's trash and recycling sections are headed "For residences with city-issued trash carts" and "For residences with city-issued recycling carts," and it says trash is collected weekly and recycling bi-weekly. Commercial waste generators sit outside this schedule: section 14-19(a) ended city-provided commercial collection effective January 1, 2020.

Thanksgiving Day is Thursday, November 26, 2026, Christmas Day is Friday, December 25, 2026, and New Year's Day is Friday, January 1, 2027. Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day 2026 are on both the code list and the guide list. Only the code's standing list reaches January 1, 2027: the guide names New Year's Day, but its calendars are headed 2026 and it prints no 2027 dates. Neither document prints a make-up date for any holiday, so the only shift stated is a one-day delay.

Set-out times are written against the scheduled pickup. For city-issued carts, § 14-68(a)(9)g and (b)(9)g bar setting a cart out before 6:00 p.m. of the day preceding the scheduled pickup, and § 14-68(a)(9)i and (b)(9)i require removal from plain view from the street no later than 7:00 p.m. on the date of scheduled pickup. The older 8:00 p.m. limit in § 14-18(a)(3) is written for households still using their own regulation containers, which § 14-68(a)(9)s keeps under § 14-18 until the commissioner provides a city-issued container.