Charleston, SC Trash & Recycling: Pickup Rules & Schedules (2026)

City Code Sec. 14-46(h) makes it unlawful for a resident to deposit residential material in any receptacle maintained on a sidewalk for pedestrian or motorist litter, or at any other unauthorized disposal site, closing off the option of using public street cans for household trash. Subsection (i) requires that when grass, leaves, brush, tree parts, white goods, furniture and other bulk trash are set out, each category must be separated at the curb so collection crews have clear access; if categories are mixed together, the city will not collect any of it; the resident, not the crew, is responsible for going back out and separating the pile before it will be picked up.

Subsection (j) sets the physical form waste must take at the curb: trash must be piled in compact piles at the curb or edge of pavement rather than scattered, and boxes and paper must be bundled and tied securely so they do not blow into the street or clog storm drains. Together these rules exist to keep collection routes moving and to stop residents from offloading household garbage into public infrastructure meant for pedestrian litter. They apply on top of, not instead of, the container, timing and location rules in the same section, so a resident can be in violation of the set-out rules even with a compliant container if the pile itself is mixed, loose or unbundled.