Trash Collection Guidelines

1. Trash containers must be placed at the curb in front of your house no later than 6 a.m. on your scheduled collection day and turned so that the handles and wheels are facing away from the street.  Trash containers cannot be placed curbside before 5 p.m. on the day prior to your scheduled pick up and cannot be left at curbside for longer than 24 hours after the scheduled collection day.

2. Trash must be properly contained in a tied plastic trash bag or other form of closed bag inside your city-issued trash container. 

3. The lid must be closed completely or trash will not be picked up.

4. City trash trucks must be able to access your trash container.

a. Trash containers must not be more than three feet from the curb so that the arm of the trash truck can reach them.

b. Vehicles must not be parked at the curb that could block access to the trash container.

c. No obstruction may be within 3 feet of trash containers such as mailboxes, additional trash containers, recycling bins, boxes, limbs or brush.

5. Trash containers are for general household trash ONLY and cannot contain unacceptable materials such as car batteries, wet paint, used oil, tires and yard waste (leaves/grass/sticks).

The City of Searcy is implementing this change because the current sanitation trucks are aging and costly to maintain.  These new side-arm trucks will significantly reduce the amount of manpower required, since only one operator is needed for the new trash truck instead of the three-man crews currently used.  The new side arm trucks will be using Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) which will save on fuel cost, are more reliable and will have less environmental impact.  The end result is a faster, more efficient collection process. 

In addition to greater efficiency, residents will see other benefits:

• Fewer problems with animals and other pests since the containers will have tight fitting lids

• Neater appearance of neighborhoods since the trash containers will be identical

• Easier to “take out the trash” since the containers are wheeled and easy to maneuver