City guide · Ohio

Akron Trash Pickup Schedule

This Akron trash pickup schedule covers weekly curbside collection for one, two, and three family freestanding homes, plus the city's annual leaf-only yard waste program and its two-tier bulky item system. Here's exactly how the Akron trash pickup schedule works for garbage, recycling, and leaves, and what it actually costs on your monthly utility bill.

Akron's Public Works Bureau runs a fairly compact set of rules compared with larger metro systems, but the details matter: carts have to hit the curb by a specific early-morning cutoff, glass is handled through a separate drop-off network rather than curbside recycling, and the annual leaf program only runs once a year on a ward-specific date that can move if the weather turns. Skimming past any one of those details is usually what leads to a missed cart or a bag of leaves sitting at the curb for weeks. This guide walks through each rule using only what the city has published on akronohio.gov, and flags plainly where information (like cart size or color) simply isn't public.

How often is trash picked up in Akron?

The Akron garbage collection schedule collects garbage and recycling weekly for one, two, and three family freestanding residential units. Larger multifamily buildings fall outside that definition and are not explicitly covered by the city's residential cart program. Leaves are collected separately, just once per year, through an autumn-only program that runs roughly November through December.

Carts are city property with permanently attached lids carrying a 10-year warranty. Personal containers are not accepted for regular collection.

Find your exact pickup day

Every address on the Akron curbside collection schedule has its own pickup day, and the city does not publish a single citywide list - you need to look your address up directly.

Look up your Akron pickup schedule →

The city's interactive collection-day map lets you search by address. You can also call 3-1-1 (from a landline in the city) or 330-375-2311 (from a cell phone or outside the city).

If you've just moved into an Akron address, don't assume your day matches the previous tenant's habits or a neighbor's mail-forwarded reminder card - routes are assigned by street segment, and boundaries occasionally shift when the city adjusts truck routing. The fastest way to confirm is the address search on the interactive map; keep the result somewhere you'll actually see it, since Akron does not send a printed calendar to every household automatically.

Cart placement rules

• Carts must be at the curb by 4:30 AM on your collection day
• Empty carts must be removed from the curb by 6:00 PM the same day
• Recycling goes in loose, never bagged
• An additional trash or recycling cart can be requested for a one-time $50 fee, up to two extra of each per household

The 4:30 AM cutoff is earlier than a lot of cities require, which mostly matters for households used to rolling the cart out right before the truck sounds like it's close - in Akron, that habit risks a missed pickup if the route runs earlier than expected. Setting the cart out the night before is the simplest way to avoid the issue entirely.

Akron Trash Holiday Schedule

Akron's holiday mechanic is a one-day slide that carries through the rest of that week, rather than a delay limited to just the holiday's own route. When one of the six recognized holidays below falls on a collection day, every collection day for the remainder of that week moves back one day - so a normal Friday route can end up running on Saturday.

Juneteenth is explicitly excluded from the delay - collection runs on its normal day that week even though city offices may close. Independence Day is not listed among the city's published holiday delays on its official trash and recycling page.

Because the slide only applies to the remainder of that particular week, it resets rather than compounding into future weeks - unlike some cities where a rotation keeps drifting all year. A Monday route that hits a Monday holiday moves to Tuesday, Tuesday's route moves to Wednesday, and so on through the end of that week, then everything snaps back to the normal day the following week. The safest habit is to check the interactive map or call 3-1-1 any week a holiday from the table above falls before your normal pickup day.

What goes in each cart

Glass is not accepted in the curbside recycling cart. Akron runs a separate glass drop-off program at six locations around the city.

Single-stream means you don't have to separate paper from cans from plastic - everything accepted goes loose into the same recycling cart. The tradeoff for that convenience is that contamination (bagged recyclables, glass, or food-soiled items mixed in) can get an entire cart rejected on collection day, so it's worth double-checking the accepted list above before tossing something in.

Bulky waste pickup

Akron runs two separate free bulky-waste tracks. Regular weekly bulky items - furniture, dressers, mattresses, couches, TVs, bookcases, doors, bicycles, windows, and tied bundles of carpet, wood, brush, branches, or fencing - can simply be set out 3 feet from your cart on your normal collection day with no scheduling required. For everything else, such as bags and boxes from a move or a cleanout, residents can request a "Special Bulk Volume Pickup." That service is also free but capped at three requests per household per year, and must be scheduled at least one business day in advance by calling 3-1-1 or 330-375-2311.

The distinction between the two tracks trips people up more than any other part of the system: a couch or mattress needs no phone call at all, while a stack of moving boxes or a garage cleanout does need advance notice. If you're not sure which category your items fall into, it costs nothing to call 3-1-1 and ask before setting anything out - misplaced bulky items can sit uncollected if they don't match either category.

What Akron trash service costs

Curb service (refuse plus recycling) is not funded through property tax - it's billed separately through the city's Utilities Business Office, on the same bill as water and sewer. Effective January 1, 2025, the standard residential rate is $24.34 per month. Households enrolled in the Homestead discount program pay $13.20 per month. The city does not publish rates broken out by cart size.

Because the fee rides on the water and sewer bill rather than a standalone invoice, it's easy to overlook as a distinct line item - if your bill looks higher than expected, checking the curb service charge specifically (rather than assuming it's all water usage) is a reasonable first step before calling in a dispute.

Apartments & multifamily buildings

Akron defines its trash collection service as covering one, two, and three family freestanding residential units. That leaves larger multifamily and apartment complexes outside the stated service area. Official city pages don't spell out who handles collection at those larger buildings - it's likely arranged through private haulers, but that isn't explicitly confirmed on akronohio.gov, so residents of larger complexes should check with their property manager rather than assume city cart service applies.

If you manage or live in a fourplex or larger building and aren't sure which side of that line you fall on, the safest move is a direct call to 3-1-1 - the freestanding one-to-three-family definition is specific enough that borderline properties (like a converted duplex on a shared lot) are worth confirming individually rather than guessing.

Reporting illegal dumping

Report illegal dumping through the city's online portal at akronoh.citysourced.com using the "Put In A Request" option, or call 3-1-1 from a landline within the city or 330-375-2311 from a cell phone or from outside the city.

Having a location, a description of what was dumped, and photos ready before you file speeds up the process considerably - the city's request system is set up to route reports to the right crew, and vague submissions (a general "somewhere on my street" without an address) are harder to act on quickly.

Frequently asked questions

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City contact & resources

Bookmark this Akron trash collection calendar and check back whenever a holiday shifts the calendar. Need more than curbside pickup? Compare local bulk & junk removal quotes. Browse all Ohio cities or the full state directory.