Butte County, CA Trash & Recycling: Pickup Rules & Schedules (2026)

Butte County's performance standards spell out both sides of a missed or refused pickup. Under Section 31-35(C)(13)(c)(3), a hauler must provide a special pickup or other acceptable corrective action within twenty-four hours of a customer's oral or written notice of a missed scheduled collection, at no charge, unless the hauler can document the customer's container was not set out at the normal service time, in which case a return-trip fee applies. If the hauler still fails to make that special collection, the county may perform or arrange the collection itself and bill the hauler for its costs, and the hauler must keep a running list of every missed collection and the corrective action taken.

Section 31-35(C)(14) then lists the circumstances where a hauler is not obligated to collect at all: waste set outside rather than inside a container, manually collected cans that together with their contents exceed fifty-five pounds, containers on a non-service road without an agreement, containers presenting a safety threat, or containers the hauler believes hold hazardous waste. In every one of those cases except nonpayment, the hauler must leave a non-collection notice on the container stating the date, address, reason for refusal, and how the material should be prepared for the next attempt.