For more than 100 years, the City of San Diego has provided refuse and recycling collection services to the public. In 2020, with the onset of a global pandemic that compelled community members to stay home, the City saw an 11% increase in tons of trash and recycling collected when compared to the same period in 2019. The high volume of waste, coupled with the impacts of COVID-19 on City employees, led to a increase in missed collections.

With more than 105,000 collections scheduled every day, our drivers face a daunting task each morning when they begin their routes. Our team does their absolute best to make every collection on time. If your collection is missed, check out the Environmental Services Department’s collection status website to see if your collection is delayed. If your address has been identified as being delayed, we will return the following day to provide your service. If your address was not identified as being delayed, please use Get It Done to submit a report under the “Missed Collection” category, and our team will do their absolute best to collect.

Here are some helpful hints to further ensure that your container gets collected as scheduled:

• Residents must provide a serviceable container in order to receive the services provided by the City. If your container needs to be replaced, please begin that process as soon as possible by visiting Get It Done.


• Place your containers out no later than 6:00 a.m. on the morning of your normally scheduled collection. Our Sanitation Drivers are in neighborhoods as early as 6:15 a.m., so please be sure to get your containers out before that time.


• Please place your containers at least three (3) feet from other containers, cars, and objects. Do not place containers under obstacles such as tree branches, overhead wires, or basketball hoops.


• Do not overflow your container. Objects sticking out of the container can become projectiles during the automated collection process and cause damage or injury. These overflowing objects may prohibit drivers from collecting the contents of the container.

Thank you for your patience as we work through these unprecedented times together.