It depends on your street. The City of Bloomington’s Sanitation Division picks up trash and recycling once a week, and the City’s myBloomington address tool shows which day is yours.
Below we cover who gets City carts, what they cost, why a cart gets skipped, the holiday and snow delays, what the carts refuse and how to book a pickup for something too big for the cart. Fees and 2026 dates are as the City listed them in October 2026.
Clearing out more than your Bloomington cart holds?
Veteran-owned with 600+ five-star Google reviews across our locations, an office in Bloomington and a free on-site quote.
Where Do You Look Up Your Trash Pickup Day in Bloomington?
In myBloomington. Search your street address and the tool brings up the City’s information for it, including your weekly trash day. The gray-lid trash cart and the yellow-lid recycling cart both go out on that day. City routes run Monday through Thursday, the four route days on the City’s revised schedule after the January 2026 storm.
Yard waste runs on its own every-other-week schedule from April through December, and the same search shows those days.
Two more City tools sit on the Sanitation Services page. The interactive Sanitation Services Map shows collection information for the whole city, and a what-goes-where lookup tells you whether an item belongs in the trash cart or the recycling cart. For anything else about your service, the Sanitation Division answers at (812) 349-3443 and at sanitation@bloomington.in.gov.
Which Bloomington Homes Does City Trash Pickup Cover?
Houses inside the city limits, rentals included, with exceptions such as apartment complexes and bigger apartment buildings. On its Sanitation Services page, the City exempts all commercial properties from its curbside service, naming businesses, apartment complexes, apartment houses with more than four units, and housing developments with privately owned streets.
Two checks come first for an address. First, the city limits: myBloomington shows whether an address is inside or outside them, and a mailing address that says Bloomington does not settle that on its own. Second, the building. If you rent in a complex or in a building with more than four units, or live on a private street in a housing development, the City will not issue you carts. Ask your landlord, property manager or homeowners association how trash is handled there. A home above or in the same building as a business may also fall outside City service, since the City exempts commercial properties. Not sure which side of the line you are on? Ask the Sanitation Division before you count on a cart.
Moving into a covered house? If carts are already there, service starts once you sign up for water service with City of Bloomington Utilities (CBU). If there are no carts, contact the Sanitation Division.
Outside the limits, or at an address the City does not serve, weekly pickup comes from a private trash hauler. The other route is the one the City’s page suggests: the Monroe County Solid Waste Management District’s orange bag program at its rural recycling centers. Our guide to where to take junk in Bloomington covers that program. Clearing out a rental at the end of an IU lease is its own job, and our move-out guide for IU students and renters walks through it.
What Does a City Trash Cart Cost for Bloomington Households?
A monthly fee set by the size of your trash cart, billed on your CBU statement. The recycling cart has no fee, whatever size you choose, and each household gets one cart of each kind. As published on the City’s Sanitation page in October 2026, the trash cart fees are:
- 35-gallon cart: $9.28 a month
- 64-gallon cart: $16.97 a month
- 96-gallon cart: $25.46 a month
Those amounts change each January. Under the City Council’s Ordinance 23-14, the cart fees rise 3% every January 1, a rule that began in 2025, so read the figures above as 2026 prices.
In a rental, the name on the utility bill decides the cart size. If the bill is in the landlord’s name, the landlord chooses; if it is in yours, you get priority. Switching sizes costs a $25 exchange fee per cart on your next CBU statement, and the City says it will make every effort to deliver the new cart by the next billing cycle.
Say you move into a rental where the last tenant kept the 35-gallon cart, and your household fills it by midweek. With the utility bill in your name, you can ask the Sanitation Division for the 64-gallon cart instead: a $25 exchange fee once, then $16.97 a month instead of $9.28.
Why Didn’t the City Collect Your Trash in Bloomington?
Look for a non-collection notice first. When City crews do not collect a cart, they leave a notice on it explaining the problem. Then check the cart against the City’s set-out guidelines. To be sure of collection, the City asks that carts be:
- at the curb by 5 a.m. on your pickup day
- turned so the front faces the street, the way the lid shows
- at least 4 feet from each other and from mailboxes, trees, overhead wires and other obstacles
- at least 10 feet from any vehicle
- closed, with the lid all the way down
- holding bagged trash, with every bag inside the trash cart
- holding loose recycling, not in a bag, with no trash mixed in
The lid rule is stricter than it sounds. Under the City’s code, a lid that does not rest flush because the cart is overfilled does not count as closed, and a cart that is not closed is not collected. Two timing rules can also bring a fine: carts may not go out more than 24 hours before collection, and they have to come back off the curb the same day they are emptied.
A full cart in the morning may not be a miss. Crews collect trash and recycling on separate runs, so the two carts can be emptied at different times of the same day, and the City asks residents not to call about a missed collection until after noon. Still full after that? Call the Sanitation Division at (812) 349-3443.
Forgot to set the cart out by 5 a.m., or have more trash than the cart holds this week? Book an additional pickup by phone or with the City’s online form, giving at least 24 hours’ notice. Crews collect those on Fridays, and as published in October 2026 the charge on your CBU statement is $2.54 for a 35-gallon cart, $4.65 for a 64-gallon cart and $6.98 for a 96-gallon cart. Under the same code, a booked pickup is charged even if the cart is not at the curb before the crew comes.
For example, in a move-in week when the trash will not fit under a closed lid, book the Friday pickup for the overflow instead of setting bags beside the cart.
Does Thanksgiving or Snow Push Back Bloomington Trash Pickup?
Thanksgiving does: it is the one 2026 holiday the City lists with a delay. Sanitation services run one day late on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 26, and the City asks customers to have trash and recycling carts at the curb by 5 a.m. the day after, Friday, November 27.
The other holidays on the City’s 2026 list keep the normal schedule: Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Election Day and Veterans Day. Christmas Day is not on that list, and it falls on Friday, December 25 this year, so check with the Sanitation Division before that week rather than assume.
Snow and extreme cold can delay pickup too. In mid-December 2025, the City ran every route a day late for a week ahead of extreme cold. During the January 2026 winter storm, it held collection until Wednesday, January 28, ran Monday’s routes that day and Thursday’s on Saturday, January 31, and went back to the regular schedule on Monday, February 2.
During that January delay, the City asked residents to keep carts off the street until their rescheduled day and not to set out extra trash, so crews could get down narrow, snow-covered streets. In any storm week, check the City’s Sanitation page for the current notice before the cart goes out.
Furniture that cannot wait for a Bloomington pickup day?
Veteran-owned with 600+ five-star Google reviews across our locations, same-day and next-day service and a free on-site quote.
Which Items Will the City Leave in Carts at Bloomington Homes?
Anything on the Sanitation Division’s refused list, even when it fits under the lid. As listed on the City’s Sanitation Services page in October 2026, crews will not collect:
- gasoline, antifreeze, and used motor oil or oil filters
- tires and any other automobile parts
- batteries, paint and mercury
- pesticides and herbicides
- fluorescent bulbs and ballasts
- medications and cleaners
- electronics, such as TVs, computers and computer parts
- construction debris
- items with bedbugs
The City’s code adds two more conditions: trash has to be drained of liquids before it goes in the cart, and items infested with vermin, such as bedbugs, cockroaches or rodents, will not be collected.
The recycling cart has refusals of its own, and a cart holding one gets left with a sticker saying why. Among them are plastic bags and other plastic film, Styrofoam in any form, pizza boxes and other food-grade cardboard, and waxy or plastic-coated cartons such as milk and juice cartons. The City’s Recycling Services page lists the rest. One allowance runs the other way: metal that fits in the recycling cart, such as steel, tin, aluminum or copper, can go in it.
For where the refused items can go instead, our guide covers which Monroe County drop-off site takes what.
How Do You Book the City’s Large Item or Appliance Pickup in Bloomington?
Book it with the Sanitation Division first. Crews pick up large items and appliances by appointment only, so one set out without a booking is not collected. The steps, as the City’s Sanitation Services page lists them in October 2026:
- Book it. Call (812) 349-3443 or use the online request form linked from the City’s sanitation pages, giving at least 24 hours’ notice.
- Set it out on the right day. A large item goes to the curb on your regular trash day. Appliances are picked up on Thursdays, so confirm the day for yours when you book.
- Pay on your bill. The City charges $25 per large item and $35 per appliance, added to your monthly CBU statement.
The City’s examples of large items and appliances are furniture such as couches, chairs and tables, plus mattresses, refrigerators, dishwashers and grills. The charge is per item, so a room’s worth adds up: a couch and two chairs are three large item charges.
The pickup is part of City sanitation service, billed on the same CBU statement as your carts. Our guide also covers how Bloomington residents get rid of a mattress or couch for free at the district’s rotating bulky item drop-off. A hospital bed is its own case, and our hospital bed guide for Bloomington families walks through it.
A crew makes more sense when the pile is a room or a whole move rather than a few pieces. The same goes when it has to come down stairs or up from a basement before it reaches the curb, when your building has no City carts, or when it needs to go before your next trash day. That is the work behind our page on furniture removal in Bloomington, and we handle appliance removal for Bloomington homes as well.
We run out of Columbus, where we also do furniture removal for Columbus homes, keep an office in Bloomington and offer same-day and next-day service. The crew sizes up the load on site and gives you the price there, with no obligation, and you pay when the job is done; our guide to junk removal costs in Bloomington covers what drives that price. We also take bedbug and flea apartment cleanouts. We do not take paint, fuel, motor oil or household chemicals, so those still go to the district.
The Takeaway
Bloomington’s City trash service is a weekly routine with a few firm edges, and each section above covers one of them. Your day from myBloomington handles the routine, and the Sanitation Division handles the weeks that look different. A crew earns its place when a job outgrows a couple of booked pickups.
