City guide · Texas

Dallas Trash Pickup Schedule

This Dallas trash pickup schedule covers a city whose Department of Sanitation Services runs a simpler weekly rhythm than some Texas neighbors - garbage and recycling both go out on the same day, every week, with no biweekly split. What makes Dallas different shows up elsewhere: there's no separate yard-waste cart at all, and the city's holiday adjustments don't follow one fixed rule.

Instead, brush and bulky items are combined into one generous monthly program folded into a flat fee, and Dallas Sanitation announces holiday schedule changes fresh each time rather than applying a standing formula. Here's how the city's garbage collection schedule, billing, and Bulky & Brush program actually work.

How often is trash picked up in Dallas?

Garbage is collected weekly at every serviced address, and recycling runs weekly too, always on that same collection day in a blue roll cart. There is no separate curbside yard-waste stream and no opt-in organics cart - vegetative material waits for the monthly Brush and Bulky collection instead.

Because garbage and recycling share one weekly day, Dallas's garbage pickup days are also your recycling days - there's no A/B rotation to track, just one date to remember each week.

For residents used to a split recycling calendar elsewhere, Dallas's single weekly day for both streams is one less thing to plan around. The trade-off is that yard waste doesn't get its own weekly cart the way garbage collection schedule structures in some other cities include one.

Find your exact pickup day

Every Dallas address has its own assigned collection day and its own monthly Bulky & Brush week, and the city's address-based lookup tool is the fastest way to confirm both.

Look up your Dallas pickup schedule →

The free Dallas Sanitation Services mobile app mirrors the same lookup tool and also pushes alerts when a holiday advisory changes your route for that week.

If you've recently moved within Dallas or your street has seen route changes, re-check the lookup tool rather than assuming a previous address's day carries over. Confirming your current collection calendar directly with the city avoids a guessing game based on a neighbor's schedule.

Cart placement rules

Dallas Sanitation asks residents to keep carts clear of parked cars, low branches, and other obstacles so automated trucks can service them without stopping. The same basic placement rules apply to both the garbage and recycling carts.

• Carts at the curb well before your scheduled collection window, ideally the night before
• Recycling loose in the blue cart, no bagging
• Brush and bulky items in separate piles, at least 3 feet apart, during your monthly collection week

A cart blocked by a parked car or overgrown hedge is one of the most common reasons a pickup gets skipped. Leaving clear space on all sides of the cart gives the automated truck arm room to do its job.

Dallas Trash Holiday Schedule

Dallas is a genuine outlier among Texas cities here: it does not apply one fixed universal rule when a holiday lands on a collection day. In some past years the standard slip pattern applied, where a holiday and the rest of that week's routes shift one day later, with Friday moving to Saturday.

In at least one other documented case, when Christmas and New Year's fell on a Friday, affected Friday routes instead moved two days earlier to the preceding Wednesday. Because the approach varies, Dallas Sanitation announces adjustments fresh, holiday by holiday and year by year, through a city advisory, the Sanitation app, and Dallas 311 - always check the live current-year advisory rather than assume a pattern.

Treat this table as a list of dates to watch rather than a fixed shift pattern. Dallas Sanitation's advisory for each specific holiday is the only reliable source for how that week's routes will move.

This is a genuine differentiator worth remembering: where some Texas cities publish one holiday rule that applies every year, Dallas's garbage collection schedule gets a fresh advisory each time. Bookmarking the city's advisory page or turning on app notifications is the most reliable way to stay ahead of a holiday-week change.

What goes in each cart

Dallas doesn't issue a third cart for yard waste the way some Texas cities do. Limbs, trimmings, and leaves instead wait for your monthly Bulky & Brush week and go out as their own separate pile.

Households used to a weekly grass-and-leaves cart elsewhere sometimes find this adjustment the biggest change when they move to Dallas. Planning yard work around your monthly Brush & Bulky week, rather than expecting weekly pickup, avoids a pile sitting at the curb for days.

How much does trash service cost in Dallas?

Dallas charges a flat monthly Sanitation fee on the city utility bill, billed alongside water but as its own separate line item rather than a water rate. The FY2025-26 rate, effective October 1, 2025, is $40.09 per month before 8.25% sales tax.

That single flat fee covers garbage, recycling, brush, and bulky collection together - there's no confirmed cart-size pricing tiers the way some other Texas cities use, so don't expect a smaller or larger cart to change the bill. Confirm the current rate on dallascityhall.com before budgeting, since sanitation fees are reviewed annually.

Because the fee is bundled into the same utility billing system as water, it typically shows up on the same statement each month rather than arriving as a separate invoice.

Unlike San Antonio's tiered cart pricing or Houston's newer administration fee, Dallas keeps things simple with one flat number for every serviced address. That makes budgeting predictable, even if it means residents with smaller households pay the same rate as those filling a cart every week.

Bulky & brush pickup

Bulky item collection in Dallas is free and already included in the flat monthly fee, and it runs on a genuinely more generous cadence than most Texas cities: monthly rather than once or twice a year. Each address has an assigned collection week once a month, with a generous limit of up to 10 cubic yards per set-out.

Brush and bulky items need to go out as separate piles, at least 3 feet apart, since they're collected together but sorted differently by the crew. Because there's no standalone yard-waste program, this monthly window is also the only regular way to get rid of limbs, trimmings, and leaves at the curb.

Compared to cities that only offer bulky pickup twice a year, Dallas's monthly cycle means a large item rarely sits at the curb for long. It's one of the more resident-friendly parts of the city's otherwise flat, no-frills fee structure.

Apartments & multifamily buildings

City-run roll-cart collection in Dallas covers single-family homes and duplexes only. Larger apartment complexes typically contract with a private hauler rather than use the city's residential cart system.

Separately, Dallas's Multifamily Recycling Ordinance, effective January 1, 2020, mandates recycling access at properties with 8 or more units regardless of which hauler they use, requiring at least 11 gallons of recycling capacity per unit per week. That rule applies even though the actual collection is arranged privately rather than through the city.

Renters who don't see recycling bins on-site at an 8-plus-unit property should raise it with the property manager first, since the ordinance places the compliance obligation on the owner rather than on individual tenants.

Reporting illegal dumping

Report illegal dumping or a missed collection through Dallas 311 - call 311 from inside the city or 214-670-4111 from outside it or from a cell phone, report online, or use the OurDallas app, all available 24/7. For illegal dumping specifically, there's a dedicated hotline at 214-671-CODE.

Reporting a missed cart the same day it happens is usually the fastest path to a resolution, and separate illegal dumping reports help the city track and clean up recurring problem sites.

Frequently asked questions

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City contact & resources

Bookmark this Dallas trash pickup schedule and check the current holiday advisory whenever one comes up, since the city doesn't follow one fixed shift pattern.

Between the flat monthly fee, the weekly recycling schedule, and a genuinely generous monthly Bulky & Brush program, Dallas's overall approach to waste pickup days trades a bit of holiday unpredictability for simplicity everywhere else. Knowing your one collection day and your monthly bulky week covers most of what a resident needs to plan around.

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