Arvada, CO Trash & Recycling: Pickup Rules & Schedules (2026)

City Code § 90-3 sets the baseline pickup and storage duty for every occupied property in Arvada, independent of whether the resident uses the city's own hauling program. Subsection (a) requires the owner, lessee, tenant, or any other person with a right of possession to arrange removal of all waste, trash, rubbish, or refuse from the premises at regular intervals, and requires that between collections the material sit in covered containers built to keep waste from escaping. Non-residential enclosures face an added screening rule under § 90-3(b): trash storage areas for anything other than residential uses must be either fully inside a building or fully screened from public view by masonry or solid noncombustible fencing at least six feet tall, though uses that predate August 12, 1980 and have not complied are grandfathered.

Section 90-3(d) separately bars anyone from dumping waste into a container that belongs to another person or business without the container owner's written permission, closing off the practice of using a neighbor's or a commercial dumpster without consent. These duties apply on top of, not instead of, the city's own collection service rules in Article II, and cover self-haulers and privately contracted service alike, since § 90-34 allows residents to haul their own waste only if it is collected and disposed of in conformity with all city ordinances.