laws about how early the trash can be picked up in Oakland, CA?

April 30, 2024 10:59 PM

The garbage trucks are coming super early, multiple times a week, in my neighborhood in Oakland, CA. Is there a law that governs how early they're allowed to come? I heard 6am is the law but I can't find it on the books. A link to the law would be really helpful! Otherwise, who would be the point of contact to get the times moved later, and have you successfully done this?
posted by anonymous to Law & Government (9 answers total)

Maybe call the city and ask them what the rules are?

You don't say how early. You have trash pickup multiple times a week? Or just trash trucks driving up the street early to go somewhere else? (A plane flies over our our house every morning at 6-ish every morning, sucks).

Here in Seattle, we get pickups once a week. Every other week, we also get recycling pickup. But usually the order is trash->yard waste-> recycling. And trash rarely happens before 8-something. Says we are supposed to have our bins out by 7 am, but, trash never comes before 8.
posted by Windopaene at 11:10 PM on April 30

City of Oakland says your cart should be on the curb by 6am, but this probably isn't a law, it's in their contract with the sanitation company.

If your cart is on the curb by 6am but isn't getting picked up because the truck came early, there is a number to call to reach Waste Management for trash pickup (recycling is a different company.
posted by muddgirl at 11:16 PM on April 30 [2 favorites]

There are other services they provide which may be why they are out early, such as bulk pickup, assisted pickups for the elderly or disabled who can't put their carts on the curb, apartments and corporations, etc.
posted by muddgirl at 11:19 PM on April 30

As a data point I regularly bike to work in SF before 4am and basically the only other vehicles on the road are garbage trucks. I think they’re mostly private haulers doing commercial pickups but they are many (and pretty loud)
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 3:28 AM on May 1 [2 favorites]

My local announced last summer that due to rising heat, pickups would begin earlier, so it may be something like this if your area is already warming.
posted by OHenryPacey at 7:58 AM on May 1 [3 favorites]

I would look at noise ordinances:here
It does say this, not sure if it would be considered to apply to trash trucks but following procedures for noise complaints might be a good avenue
“ Loading and Unloading. Loading, unloading, opening, closing, or other handling of boxes, crates, containers, building materials, refuse, or similar objects between the hours of nine p.m. and six a.m. in such a manner as to cause a noise disturbance across a residential property line or at any time to violate the applicable noise provisions of the Oakland Planning Code;”
posted by needs more cowbell at 8:15 AM on May 1 [3 favorites]

I am assuming your unspoken complaint is noise disturbance rather than not being able to get your trash bins out in time. If it is the latter, I believe that in Oakland you can pay extra to have the trash collectors get them from wherever you keep them.
posted by needs more cowbell at 8:18 AM on May 1

Across the bay in SF, Recology shows up anywhere from 3am to 9am. My partner wakes up violently at the sound of the dumpster from across the street being banged around, and he did some research about this a few years ago - there was unfortunately no remedy over here but noise machine and earplugs.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 4:33 PM on May 1

Is there a law that governs how early they're allowed to come?

Not that I've ever heard of. There are noise ordinances but I don't know how or why you'd want to stop trash pickup until trucks got quieter. That's how you get ants. And rats, and flies, &c.

I used to live in Downtown Oakland- our apartment only had room for multiple residential garbage cans, so that particular truck came one day; then another day for the truck that picked up the dumpsters for apartments; then another day for the commercial dumpsters for the cafe next door and the liquor store, and some other day for commercial compost. Because we were on a corner of the block we'd also hear the waste pickups for the route that came on another day of the week for the people around the corner from us. Commercial pickups would be as early as 3:30 a.m. Unfortunately this is just a thing you deal with in a city. Sometimes when people complain the route is too early, the waste company will move it later- and then people complain that the trucks are blocking their cars when they're trying to leave for work or whatever. This isn't really a thing that can be solved with competing interests, multiple agencies and companies involved, and a city that needs services performed on a timely basis. San Francisco is the same way.
posted by oneirodynia at 11:08 PM on May 3