Residential Services

About Service

Residential Services Include:

  • Curbside cart services
  • A monthly request for bulky waste pickups
  • Yearly District Cleanups
  • Free drop-off events
  • Bulky & Brush drop-offs at Cobbs Recycling Center and the Landfill
  • A one-time collection request of moving boxes
  • Free download of our Waco Curbside APP

District Clean-Ups

Solid Waste District Clean-Ups provide the opportunity for Waco Residential Customers to place unwanted bulky waste and brush at the curb during their district’s Saturday clean–up date. All items must be at the curb by 7 a.m. the day of the pick–up. The District Cleanup season begins in November and ends in March each year.

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  • District 3 — Saturday, 11/4/23
  • District 4 — Saturday, 12/9/23
  • District 5 — Saturday, 01/20/24
  • District 2 — Saturday, 02/10/24
  • District 1 — Saturday, 03/9/24

Find your council district and complete the online registration form to be placed on the official pick–up list.

Items that will be picked up:

  • Bagged or boxed trash
  • Unusable furniture, mattresses, box springs, toys, swing sets, misc. junk
  • Un-repairable items (i.e. bicycles, BBQ grills)
  • Bagged grass, leaves, plant trimmings Brush piles (8' x 8' x 8')

Items that will not be picked up:

  • Aerosol cans
  • Antifreeze
  • Basketball goals
  • Construction project debris (i.e. fencing, bricks, tiles, rocks, sand, dirt, roofing materials such as shingles)
  • Food waste
  • Gasoline/Oil/Transmission fluid/Tires
  • Hazardous waste items that contained Freon (i.e. freezers, refrigerators, air conditioners)
  • Liquids
  • Paint/paint-related materials
  • Pesticides
  • Pool chemicals
  • Pressurized tanks (i.e. propane/oxygen/helium)
  • Tree stumps

Para información en español: (254) 299–2612

Curbside Collection Service

Garbage Cart

Gray "Trash" Cart Guidelines

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  • All garbage must be bagged & tied within the gray cart and lid must be completely closed.
  • Overstuffed carts will not be picked up.
  • Bags left outside the cart will not be picked up.
  • Place cart so handle faces your house, and the serial number faces the street.
  • Place cart at curb or edge of the street; carts must be 5 feet from obstructions and 3 feet apart.
  • Collections take place Monday through Friday.
  • Missed pickup? Garbage, recycling, and yard waste missed collections must be reported within 24 hours after your pickup day. To report a missed collection, fill out missed collection form or contact Customer Service.

Please see the Gray Cart Guidelines(PDF, 7MB) to know what you can throw away.

Recycling Cart

Blue "Recycling" Cart Guidelines

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  • All recycling must be in your blue cart, not bagged.
  • They should be empty, clean, and dry.
  • The lid must be completely closed. (Overstuffed carts will not be picked up.)
  • Cardboard left outside the cart will not be picked up (except for the one-time pick up of move-in boxes).
  • Collections occur every other week, alternating with green weeks, on your scheduled trash collection day.
  • Place cart so handle faces your house, and the metal bar faces the street.
  • Place cart at the curb or edge of the street; carts must be 5 feet from obstructions and 3 feet apart.

Items that can be recycled:

  • #1 & #2 Plastics
  • Mixed paper (newspaper, magazines, junk mail, phone books, etc.)
  • Clean Cardboard (No Pizza boxes that contain grease)
  • Aluminum, tin, and steel cans

#1 & #2 Plastics

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Mixed paper & Cardboard

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Aluminum, steel, tin cans

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Unacceptable Items:

  • Plastic Bags
  • Glass Bottles
  • Milk/Juice Coated Paper Cartons
  • Styrofoam
  • Aluminum Sheets or pie pans
  • Textiles (cloths)

No Plastic Bags

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Glass

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Milk and Juice Cartons

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Styrofoam

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Aluminum sheets

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Textiles

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Please review the Blue Cart Guidelines(PDF, 5MB)  to know what you can recycle.

Yard Waste Cart

Green "Yardwaste" Cart Guidelines

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  • Green carts, brush, and bagged leaves are collected bi-weekly.
  • Pick up alternates with with blue weeks, separately from garbage, to help divert organic material from being deposited into the landfill.
  • Grass, smalls sticks and leaves can be placed into the green, 95-gallon, cart.
  • Up to twenty paper bags can be collected.
  • Collections take place beginning 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday - Friday.
  • Please do not call before 7 p.m. on your pickup day to report a missed collection.

Yard waste, brush, and bagged leaves are collected separately from garbage. This organic waste is ground down and used as a road base when it rains- instead of depositing in the landfill and wasting valuable resources.

Please see the Green Cart Guideline(PDF, 7MB) to know what can be placed inside your green cart.

Cart Service Rules

  • All garbage must be bagged & tied within the gray cart.
  • All recyclables must be un-bagged, empty and food debris free within the blue recycling cart.
  • Overstuffed carts will not be picked up.
  • Bags left outside the cart will not be picked up.
  • Place cart so handle faces your house, and the serial number faces the street.
  • Place cart at curb or edge of the street; carts must be 5 feet from obstructions and 3 feet apart.
  • Collections take place Monday to Friday.
  • Missed pickup? Garbage, recycling, and yard waste missed collections must be reported within 24 hours after your pickup day. To report a missed collection, fill out our missed collection form or contact Customer Service.

All carts need to be placed 5 feet away from obstacles such as mailboxes, and there needs to be 3 feet of space between the carts

Pickup/Retrieve Cart Schedules for your day of service

  • Cart must be at the curb by 7 a.m. on your pickup day.
  • You may set out your cart after 6 p.m. the night before your pickup day.
  • Retrieve the cart from the curb by midnight on your pickup day.

Cart Storage

  • Per city ordinance, residents must store carts on their property within 5 feet of the home.
  • Carts must be out of view of the public roadway.

Residential Fee

  • All monthly service fees for Waco residents (with curbside cart collection) start at $19.11. 
  • Fee includes: 1 (95-gallon) trash cart, up to 2 (95-gallon) blue recycling carts and up to 2 (95-gallon) green yard waste carts.
  • Weekly collections and alternating every-other-week blue recycling cart and green yard waste cart collection are provided.

Additional Carts

  • Can be requested at $8.64 each per month.

Special Services

Missed & Extra Service $20.00
Large Bulky Waste 7 cu. yds $50.00
Large Bulky Waste 8 -15 cu. yds $90.00
Large Bulky Waste 16- 30 cu. yds $165.00
Small animal 35 lbs or less $45.00
Medium animal 36-75 lbs $75.00
Large animal 75 lbs and over $150.00
Walk up fee per trip (items not at curb) $75.00

Penalties ($20 per event)

We will contact the customer, send a written warning letter with educational information, and waive the fee for the first time occurrence.

  • Carts left at curb
  • Unbagged trash in carts
  • Use of non-city carts
  • Overfilled or carts
  • Waste outside of cart

Apartments & Multi-Unit Housing

Apartments & Multi-Housing Garbage Services

  • Dumpster size and quantity is determined by the number of units.
  • Units that have an individual water/trash account will receive the same benefits as household residents.
  • Bulky Items such as furniture must be placed in a designated area to be serviced weekly by request only.
    • Combined items cannot exceed 5ft tall x 8ft wide x 16.5ft long.
    • Items must be placed in an accessible location, not behind dumpsters.
  • Please contact customer service for more information.

Apartments & Multi-Housing Recycling Services

The Recycling Program is provided at no additional cost to apartment complexes and multi-unit housing receiving trash service from the Solid Waste Services Department. Requests to establish recycling service at apartment complexes and Multi-Unit housing must come from property management.crates.png

  • Apartment complexes will be provided with a dumpster for recyclables only.
  • Recycling dumpster(s) should be placed near existing trash dumpsters for ease of use by tenants (in most cases). This may require the loss of an adjacent parking space or two.
  • Each apartment unit will receive an individual recycling basket.
  • Tenants can then fill it with recyclables and take to the outside recycling dumpster, just as they do with their garbage.
  • Upon request, we will provide educational materials to give each tenant about recycling.
  • We will replace up to 20% of the individual baskets per year at no charge. If more are needed, there is a small fee.

Please note: Apartment complexes are prohibited from charging tenants for this service. Complexes may institute a refundable deposit if you have concerns about recycling basket retention.

Please review the Blue Cart Guidelines(PDF, 5MB)  to know what you can recycle.

Bulky Waste

Each household that receives curbside collection services, can have one bulk waste pile picked up per month.

Overall size of items to be collected

Request a Bulky Waste Collection

When to put items at the curb

  • Place bulky items at the curb then request your bulky waste collection. Crews will evaluate pickup and collect the items listed if the pile meets the requirement.
  • If the pile exceeds the 6x6x6 feet, the household will be notified to proceed the work order at the estimated fee.
  • After crews have collected items on a street, do not place more bulky items on the curb until the following month.

Where to place bulk items

  • A bulk pile must be at least five feet away from trees, mailboxes, water meters, fences and other obstructions or it will not be collected.
  • A bulk pile located under trees or where tree branches block access will not be collected.
  • Any items that will fit in your Grey Garbage Cart are not bulk and should be put in plastic bags and placed in your grey Garbage Cart.

Separate bulk trash and bulk brush

  • Create separate piles for household bulk waste and bulk brush.
  • There should be a minimum of two feet between the piles.
  • Bulk waste goes to the landfill; bulk brush gets processed and turned into mulch.

Brush Waste

Brush and Limbs

  • Residents are allowed one brush pile pick-up, twice a month, with their green carts. 
  • One brush pile no larger than 4’x 4’x 4’ will be collected. (Larger piles will not be collected.)
  • No limbs larger than 3” in diameter or stumps will be collected.
  • Please do not tie your limbs. 
  • Please do not place your brush over your water meter. 
  • Brush at curbside should only include brush generated by residents at that address.
  • Residents do not need to call to request brush collections.

Bagged Leaves

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  • Must be placed in paper bags or placed in the green yard waste cart for collections
  • No more than 20 paper Bags will be collected at the curb during green weeks.
  • Plastic bags will be the responsibility of the resident.
  • Paper yard waste bags are available for purchase at retail stores (Lowe's, Home Depot, WalMart).
  • Do not put any other trash in the same paper bag.

Illegal Dumping

Issues caused by illegal dumping:

  • reduces the beauty
  • is a fire hazard
  • contaminates our lakes and rivers
  • puts wildlife at risk

Report Illegal Dumping

McLennan County Sheriff's Office Badge LogoWaco Solid Waste works in partnership with the McLennan County Sheriff’s Department through the funding of officers to enforce illegal dumping laws throughout Greater Waco and the County.

Waco Solid Waste Services will continue its successful partnerships with community leadership organizations such as Keep Waco Beautiful and Neighborhood Associations to organize special clean-up events, such as the Brazos River Clean-Up, Neighborhood and Baylor Steppin’ Out Clean-Up events and Earth Day celebrations.

Moving Cardboard Box Collections

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  • A one-time pickup of move-in cardboard boxes is available to residents with a new water bill address.
  • Service must be requested by contacting us within two months of establishing a new account and is performed on the next scheduled recycling collection day (blue weeks only).
  • Boxes (ten or more) must be flattened, stacked, and placed at curbside by 7 a.m.
  • Up to six boxes may be filled with paper wrappings.
  • Note: service is not for multi-family residences with dumpster service.

Request Move-in Cardboard Boxes Collection