New Orleans, LA Trash & Recycling: Pickup Rules & Schedules (2026)

Beyond the cart itself, § 138-39 makes four specific acts unlawful in connection with collection: setting out garbage or trash that isn't properly contained in the city-issued roll cart, removing or vandalizing a cart's lid, overfilling a cart so the lid can't close flush against the rim, and disturbing cart contents once they've been placed for pickup, aimed at scavenging and illegal dumping into carts already staged for collection. The section then extends responsibility beyond the cart: every owner and occupant of a building, house, structure or lot is responsible for keeping their premises and the alleys immediately adjacent to it clean, and business owners and managers of stores, restaurants, markets or stands must keep the sidewalks fronting their businesses clean.

Anyone who sweeps paper, trash, litter or dirt into the street or onto a sidewalk or public way next to a store, restaurant, market or stand is responsible for cleaning it up and disposing of it properly. Together with § 138-38's cart-provision rules and § 138-42's set-out schedule, this section forms the core day-to-day conduct standard for how solid waste has to be handled between a resident's property and the collection truck, and it's one of the sections Department of Sanitation employees can enforce directly once deputized by the superintendent of police under § 138-37(b).