Tuscaloosa, AL Trash & Recycling: Holiday Pickup Schedule (2026)

The City of Tuscaloosa collects residential garbage once a week under City Code Sec. 16-92(b), and the holiday calendar lives on the city's own Holiday Schedule page rather than in the code. That page opens with the rule for every listed day: City Hall offices will be closed and there will be no garbage, trash or recycling pickups on these days. It then prints the route shifts one holiday at a time.

The fall 2026 entries are the ones residents search for. Veterans Day falls on Wednesday, November 11, 2026: Wednesday's garbage, trash and recycling routes are collected on Thursday, and Thursday's routes are collected on Friday. Thanksgiving Day is Thursday, November 26, 2026, and Thursday's collection is picked up on Friday. The day following Thanksgiving, Friday, November 27, 2026, is listed as a city holiday with no route note printed. Christmas Eve is Thursday, December 24, 2026, and Thursday's collection is picked up on Saturday. Christmas Day, Friday, December 25, 2026, is listed with no route note either, so the page's opening rule of no pickups on listed days is the only printed statement for that date.

Earlier entries on the same 2026 page show the pattern for other holidays. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (January 19), Memorial Day (May 25) and Labor Day (printed as Monday, September 07) each delay collection one day that week. Juneteenth (Friday, June 19) and the observed Independence Day (Friday, July 3) run on the normal schedule.

The page read for this record prints 2026 dates only. A Friday, January 1, 2027 New Year's Day entry is not posted in that text, so no 2027 shift is stated here. The page links a longer list titled City Observed Holidays 2026 - 2030, and Tuscaloosa 311 is the city's contact line (dial 311 within city limits or 205-248-5311).

The code backs this up in Sec. 16-95(c): when city garbage and trash collection falls on a legal holiday for the municipality, there will be no collection on that occasion and collection will recommence on the following business day. Sec. 16-95(d) adds that emergencies such as severe inclement weather conditions can also delay routine collection. Sec. 16-91(a) authorizes the director of the environmental services department to issue rules and policies under the article, which is the hook for the published calendar.