City guide · Alaska

Anchorage Trash Pickup Schedule

The Anchorage trash pickup schedule is run by the Municipality's Solid Waste Services, and it carries one feature almost no other city on this site needs: bear-resistant carts, priced as their own tier on the official rate sheet.

Beyond that, the structure is straightforward. Trash goes weekly, recycling every other week and free with your service, and curbside organics runs seasonally and stops at the end of September.

How often is trash picked up in Anchorage?

Trash is serviced weekly on a day assigned by address. Recycling and organics both run on alternating weeks.

Recycling being genuinely free is unusual. Many cities fold a recycling charge into the bill or treat the cart as a paid add-on, while here the 64 and 96 gallon recycling carts cost nothing within the service area.

Bear-resistant carts

Anchorage sits against the Chugach Mountains and black and brown bears regularly come down into residential neighborhoods. A household cart full of food waste is exactly what draws them in, so Solid Waste Services offers reinforced carts built to keep bears out.

They appear on the rate sheet as their own line, in 32 and 64 gallon sizes, each costing $2.00 a month more than the standard cart of the same capacity.

Two dollars a month is a small premium for a cart that stays upright and closed. If you back onto a greenbelt or a creek corridor, it is worth asking Customer Service whether your street is in an area where they are recommended.

The organics season

Curbside organics is the one stream here with a hard end date rather than a year-round schedule. The 2026 curbside organics collection service ends September 30.

That does not leave you without options for the rest of the year. Organics can still be dropped off at the Materials Recovery Facility until October 31, after which the program pauses for winter.

Organics is an opt-in service rather than an automatic one. Signing up means contacting Customer Service directly, so it will not simply appear with your trash cart.

Find your exact pickup day

Collection days are assigned by address, and Solid Waste Services publishes a recycling collections calendar each year alongside the trash schedule.

Look up your service on muni.org →

Because recycling runs on alternating weeks, the annual calendar matters more here than a simple day-of-week reminder. Customer Service is on 907-343-6250, Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Cart placement rules

• Set carts out the evening before or early on collection morning
• Keep carts clear of plowed snow banks in winter
• Leave clearance between carts for the automated arm
• Keep lids fully closed, which matters doubly with bears about
• Bring carts back in once emptied

Winter is the real complication in Anchorage. A cart buried behind a plow berm cannot be reached by the truck, so clearing a space at the curb is part of the routine from October onward.

Anchorage Trash Holiday Schedule

Solid Waste Services publishes its own holiday calendar each year covering both curbside collection and facility hours, and the two do not always move together. Facilities often close early rather than closing entirely.

On the curbside side, Christmas Day and New Year's Day carry a next-day service note. Because the published calendar is the authority and it changes year to year, the table below gives the 2026 dates alongside what the calendar indicates.

The dates above are the 2026 calendar dates, including the two Alaska state holidays. For the specific curbside effect in any given week, the SWS holiday calendar is the authority and Customer Service will confirm it on 907-343-6250.

What goes in each cart

The $30 contaminated recycling cart charge is worth taking seriously. Unlike a warning sticker, it is a published fee, so a single bag of trash dropped in the blue cart can cost real money.

How much does garbage service cost in Anchorage?

Anchorage prices trash by cart size rather than charging one flat residential rate, which means you can genuinely lower your bill by downsizing. These are the 2026 monthly rates.

The spread is dramatic. A 96 gallon cart costs roughly two and a half times a 32 gallon one, so a household that recycles heavily and fills only part of a large cart is paying for capacity it does not use.

Rates rose about 7 percent between 2025 and 2026, with the 32 gallon cart moving from $19.26 to $20.60. Because the published rate sheet is updated annually, confirm the current figure before budgeting.

Apartments & multifamily buildings

The cart sizes and rates here describe residential customers within the Solid Waste Services collection area. Apartment complexes are generally served by shared containers arranged through the property.

Renters in apartments usually have no cart and no SWS account of their own. Whether recycling exists is decided by the building rather than by the municipal service.

Frequently asked questions

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