Fountain Valley, CA Trash & Recycling: Yard Waste Collection (2026)

Section 6.08.130 of the Fountain Valley Municipal Code sets two clocks. Solid waste cannot sit on a premises for more than one calendar week, and refuse or cuttings cannot sit for more than fifteen days. The same sentence bars anyone from failing, refusing or neglecting to put waste and cuttings out for collection on the schedules the city establishes. The duty attaches to whoever owns, controls or occupies the premises, and Section 6.08.140(c) makes the owner and the tenant each responsible for placing the carts.

Where trimmings go is settled by Section 6.08.110(b): organic waste shall only be placed in the organic container. The city's franchised collector supplies each single-family dwelling with a ninety-five-gallon organic cart, or a sixty-five-gallon cart for customers with inadequate storage (Section 6.08.080). Lids have to stay closed, and no cart can exceed ninety-five gallons (Section 6.08.090). Damaged carts must be repaired or replaced within three days of notification, but a cart broken through misuse is charged to the resident.

Timing at the curb is tight. Under Section 6.08.140(b)(4), carts go out before six a.m. on collection day but not earlier than six p.m. the day before, and they must be back in storage no later than nine p.m. on collection day. Between pickups carts stay in a garage, trash enclosure or side yard away from public view. Collections run between six-thirty a.m. and six-thirty p.m. unless the city manager gives permission (Section 6.08.150(c)).

Some green material never goes in a cart. Section 6.08.120 bars items that are too large for or could damage the collection equipment, naming logs and tree stumps, and bars items longer than four feet or more than eighteen inches in diameter. Sod and building scraps can be refused at the collector's discretion. Burying or burning refuse is banned outright under Sections 6.08.160 and 6.08.170.