Residential Collection Service

The Sanitation Division provides collection of household garbage twice per week in the unincorporated areas of the county and the city of Lithonia. Currently, this collection service is provided to an estimated 165,000 residential households, a few home based and small businesses. Residents are allowed an unlimited amount of household solid waste curbside in approved receptacles: 20-32 gallon metal or plastic cans or bags and paper boxes. Garbage is manually collected by a crew consisting of a driver and two collectors using a rear loader high compaction vehicle. Back door service is provided at no extra charge to residents who are exempt for medical reasons from placing their containerized refuse on the curb. Backdoor service is also available to other customers for an additional charge. Residential collection and disposal fees are levied annually as a special assessment on the property tax notice.

Curbside Recycling Service

The County offers 3 types of Recycling Services.

1. Basic Service- The County provides weekly residential curbside recycling service for newspaper and aluminum cans. Aluminum cans are collected on the first collection day of the week and newspapers on the 2nd collection day of the week. These items must be bundled and tied.

2. Comprehensive Subscription Curbside Recycling Program-The most effective curbside recycling program whereby residents participate at the maximum levels possible. Residents are to only place items to be recycled that have been identified as part of the program, and participants follow all rules associated with the correct way items should be prepared and placed at the curb for recycling. See brochure in the link listed.

Residential Subscription Curbside Recycling Program Brochure

3. Recycling Drop-off-locatons- Mixed Paper Containers are located at all DeKalb County Fire Stations and many DeKalb County Public Buildings. (Citizen Recycling Drop Off Locations) These containers are green in color with a slide through slot opening in the front. All Mixed Papers may be
dropped off at these locations that include: Newspapers, Phone Books, Magazines, Catalogs, Office Paper, Cardboard, Chipboard, and Junk Mail. The paper items must pass through a six-inch ( 6” ) by four-feet ( 4’ ) slot opening to be recycled. Simply breakdown all your cardboard boxes at home, throw away all packaging in your household garbage and take the folded cardboard and other papers to the closest mixed paper container and slide them through the opening.
The cost of these services are included the annual solid waste assessment.

Residential Curbside Recyling

Yard Waste Services

The county provides curbside collection and recycling of yard waste weekly to all residents within the county service area. Customers are allowed to place an unlimited amount of containerized and properly prepared yard waste at the curb for manual collection using rear loading vehicles. All yard waste must be containerized in biodegradable bags, boxes or 20-40 gallon containers, only. Plastic bags are unacceptable. Un-containerized yard waste must be neatly assembled and cut to size (less than 50 pounds in weight, 4 feet in length, and 4 inches in diameter) for weekly curbside collection service. Special collection services are available, for a fee, to residents with large amounts of improper un-containerized accumulations of yard waste.

Yard waste collected curbside includes leaves, grass, branches, shrubs, brush, vegetation, twigs, and limbs. These materials are collected and transferred to the county Yard Waste Composting Facility for processing into high grade mulch, compost and soil products, and are available to residents at no additional charge.

The cost of curbside yard waste collection services is included in the annual residential solid waste assessment.

Special Collection Service

Special collection services are provided for a fee to customers to properly dispose of appliances, tires, furniture, un-containerized yard waste and other acceptable solid waste materials that require special handling and are not included in the annual residential solid waste assessment. These items are collected using an open body dump truck with an attached mechanized grappler.

Mowing & Herbicide Division

The mowing season begins in April and continues thru November. The Sanitation Mowing & Herbicide Division is responsible for the mowing of approximately 5,000 miles of right of ways and vacant lots. Six mowing routes are operated by one Crew Supervisor and two operators. One operator is responsible for the spraying of herbicide chemicals on county rights-of-way to retard grass and weed growth.