Dallas residents who receive trash and recycling collection from alleys may want to check whether their service is changing next year.
The City of Dallas Department of Sanitation Services will transition about 6,000 households — roughly 2% of its residential sanitation customers — from alley to curbside trash and recycling collection beginning Feb. 1, 2027.
Collection days will remain the same, but affected residents will need to place their carts at the curb by 7 a.m. on their scheduled pickup day, according to the Department of Sanitation Services.
The city said the targeted transition affects about 200 alley blocks where narrow, deteriorated, or unimproved alleys create safety concerns for sanitation crews and increase wear on collection equipment. Many of the affected alleys are 8 to 9 feet wide, have dirt or gravel surfaces, or require trucks to back out of long dead ends.
The scaled-back plan follows strong public opposition to an earlier proposal that would have moved significantly more alley-served homes to curbside collection. In October 2025, City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert paused the broader rollout to allow staff to evaluate alternatives while maintaining a focus on worker safety and service reliability.
Residents can use the city’s address lookup tool to determine whether their home is included in the 2027 transition. Those whose service is changing will receive mailed notification before the switch, noted the city’s sanitation services. Until then, residents should continue using their current alley collection point. Beginning with their first collection day in February 2027, affected households should place garbage and recycling carts at the curb, said the Department of Sanitation Services.
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