Pontiac, MI Trash & Recycling: Pickup Rules & Schedules (2026)

Section 94-27(b) puts the mechanics of collection in the hands of the Director of Public Works: residential refuse pickup happens from within the limits of dedicated street rights-of-way, following whatever regulations and schedule the Director issues for the program. The same subsection lets the Director, or a designee, authorize residential refuse collections and commercial garbage collections from other locations when doing so serves the public interest, with those collections carried out under rules the Director establishes to fit the particular situation, rather than a one-size schedule set in the Code itself.

That flexibility sits alongside the container and set-out rules in § 94-26, which fix the times carts may sit at the curb, and the service-eligibility rules in § 94-27(a) and (c), which limit the program to houses and four-unit-or-less apartments generating refuse within Pontiac's corporate limits and bar moving waste between properties, or bringing in waste from outside the city, to take advantage of it. Enforcement of the whole article, including the Director-issued schedule and location rules, rests with the directors named in § 94-2, who may adopt reasonable regulations to carry out the chapter's intent, while police officers and other people the mayor designates can issue appearance tickets for violations.

Residents who need to know their specific pickup day or a location exception should look to the schedule the Director publishes under this section rather than to a fixed day printed in the ordinance.