City guide · Illinois

Aurora Trash Pickup Schedule

This Aurora trash pickup schedule covers how the city's exclusive hauler, Groot Industries, manages residential garbage, recycling, and seasonal yard waste for households across Illinois's second-largest city. Aurora runs a more granular fee-for-service system than a lot of nearby suburbs, with multiple cart sizes, a discounted low-volume option, and a separate senior program built around prepaid bags. Garbage, recycling, yard waste, and bulk items are all collected on the same route day, just with separate trucks making the rounds.

Here's how Aurora's garbage collection schedule breaks down by service tier, what the quarterly Groot bill actually costs at each cart size, and how the holiday calendar shifts a full week of routes rather than just a single stop. We'll also cover the seasonal yard waste program, sticker-based bulky item pickup, and where to confirm your specific route with the city or with Groot directly.

Whether you're new to town or just double-checking ahead of a holiday week, this guide sticks to what's actually confirmed on Aurora's official sanitation page and in Groot's published rate sheet. Anywhere the public record isn't clear - like the exact multifamily policy - we say so directly instead of guessing.

This page covers the Aurora IL trash pickup schedule. If you meant Aurora, Colorado, use that guide instead.

How often is trash picked up in Aurora?

Garbage, recycling, and yard waste are collected weekly, all on the same route day, using separate trucks for each stream. Recycling is single-stream and unlimited, meaning there's no per-bag cap on what you can set out at the curb. Residents who consistently fill less than a full cart can opt into a Low-Volume tier instead, which collects trash every other week in a smaller, marked 35-gallon cart.

The five-option cart system - standard 35-, 65-, and 95-gallon carts, plus the Low-Volume and Senior tiers - is more granular than the flat-rate model many nearby suburbs use. That means your bill can move up or down with your household's actual output instead of staying fixed regardless of how much you set out each week.

Yard waste service is optional and seasonal rather than year-round, and it requires either a purchased sticker per bag or a subscription instead of being included automatically. The Low-Volume opt-in tier is the main way to trim your bill if a full 35-gallon cart most weeks is more room than your household needs.

Find your exact pickup day

Aurora doesn't publish a dedicated interactive address-lookup tool the way some neighboring cities do. The city's sanitation page is the best official starting point, outlining current service tiers, cart options, and program rules.

View Aurora's garbage & recycling program →

Or call Aurora Customer Service at (630) 256-4636 to confirm your specific route day and the cart size on file for your address.

If you've just moved into a new address, confirming your route day at move-in saves a surprise the first week - especially since cart size and billing tier are tied to the account on file, not the address history from a previous resident.

Bin placement rules

These basics mirror standard practice for automated cart collection across most Illinois suburbs, and following them helps make sure your stop isn't skipped on a given route.

• Carts out at the curb by your scheduled collection time, not blocking the sidewalk
• Recycling loose in the cart, no bagging required
• Bulky items need a waste sticker attached before crews will take them

Aurora Trash Holiday Schedule

Aurora observes six holidays that can shift the collection calendar: New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. If one of these falls on a Saturday, it's observed the Friday before; if it falls on a Sunday, it's observed the following Monday. When a holiday lands on your route day, your collection and every remaining pickup that week are delayed by one day rather than just that single stop.

Because the whole week shifts rather than just the holiday's own stop, it's easy to assume your regular day is unaffected if you're not paying attention to the calendar. Setting a reminder around each of these six dates is the simplest way to avoid a missed collection.

Confirm exact current-year holiday dates with Groot or the city before relying on this table for a specific week, since Saturday and Sunday holidays are observed on an adjusted weekday under Aurora's rule.

What goes in each cart

Aurora's three collection streams are built to be simple to sort at the curb: general trash goes in your cart, recyclables go in loose (no bags), and yard waste goes out separately with the right sticker or subscription attached.

How much does trash service cost in Aurora?

Aurora residents are billed directly by Groot on a quarterly basis, separate from the city's utility bill or property tax statement. Confirmed monthly-equivalent rates are $12.86 for a 35-gallon cart, $16.55 for a 65-gallon cart, and $23.80 for a 95-gallon cart. If you don't actively choose a cart size, the default setup is a 65-gallon trash cart paired with a 65-gallon recycling cart.

Sizing your cart correctly matters more here than in a flat-fee city, since the difference between a 35-gallon and 95-gallon cart works out to almost $11 a month. Households that consistently set out less than half a cart each week are the best candidates for either the smaller 35-gallon tier or the Low-Volume every-other-week option.

There's also a Senior Option using 14-gallon prepaid orange bags, priced at $1.70 per bag or $34 for a roll of 20. The Low-Volume tier mentioned earlier is the other way to trim your bill if a smaller cart covers your household's needs.

Because billing is quarterly rather than monthly, it's worth budgeting for a single larger charge every three months instead of expecting a monthly line item the way a utility-bill model works. Switching cart tiers mid-cycle is a question for Groot directly, since the city's site doesn't spell out proration rules.

Bulky item pickup

Bulky item pickup in Aurora requires a purchased waste sticker affixed to the item before crews will take it. Qualifying items include single furniture pieces, appliances, and bundled construction debris under 2 feet in diameter, 4 feet in length, and 50 pounds. Hazardous materials are excluded from curbside pickup entirely, sticker or not.

Scheduling is phone-based only - call Groot at (630) 892-9294 with at least 24 hours' notice before your collection day. The exact sticker price isn't published on the city's site, so confirm current pricing directly with Groot when you call.

Because the size limits are specific - under 2 feet in diameter, 4 feet in length, and 50 pounds per bundle - it's worth measuring oversized furniture or debris before you call, so you know whether one sticker will cover it or whether Groot needs to schedule it differently.

Apartments & multifamily buildings

Whether multifamily buildings share the same Groot contract as single-family homes, or need to arrange separate private service, isn't clearly spelled out in the city's published materials. Renters in apartment or condo buildings should call Aurora Customer Service at 630-256-4636 to confirm exactly which arrangement applies to their specific building before assuming standard curbside service is included.

Property managers are generally the fastest path to an answer if a call to the city doesn't resolve it, since many multifamily communities in the area do arrange their own hauler contracts independent of the single-family cart program described above.

Reporting illegal dumping

Report illegal dumping or a missed pickup through the myAurora311 app, available for iOS and Android, or by calling 311 or (630) 256-4636. You can also email 311@aurora.il.us if you'd rather submit the details in writing.

Having your address and the approximate date of the missed stop ready when you call or submit through the app tends to speed up the response, since crews can check the specific route log for that day.

Frequently asked questions

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City contact & resources

Bookmark this Aurora trash pickup schedule and check back whenever a holiday shifts the calendar or you're weighing a change in cart size.

Between the tiered cart pricing, the seasonal yard waste window, and a holiday rule that shifts a whole week rather than a single day, Aurora asks residents to pay closer attention to the calendar than a flat-rate city would. Keeping the sanitation page or Groot's phone number handy covers most of what comes up during the year.

Need more than curbside pickup? Compare local bulk & junk removal quotes. Browse all Illinois cities or the full state directory.