Household Waste
Chatham County does NOT collect household garbage, or recycling at curbside. That service is provided through Individual subscription service with a private waste hauler. The collection service choices available to customers vary from company to company. A comprehensive listing of waste haulers is provided in the telephone book under “Garbage Collection,” in the “Yellow Pages.”

Chatham County does not regulate private waste haulers, so shopping for a waste hauler is like shopping for any other service-it pays to be careful. Check with the local Better Business Bureau at (912)-354-7521 to see if complaints have been logged against a hauler.

Container Code
The Sanitation Code requires homeowners to remove all trash receptacles used for the collection of their household garbage from the side of the road, public right-of-way, and in front of the dwelling unit, structure, or residence no later than 24 hours after collection of garbage or refuse. Failure to do so may result in a legal enforcement action by the County.

Chatham County provides residents in the unincorporated area a weekly curbside yard waste collection.

Containerized or stacked yard waste is placed at curbside no earlier than 24 hours ahead and no later than 7:00 a.m. on the day of collection.

To properly use the County’s yard waste and bulky item collection services, please:

• Use "marked" reusable containers or Kraft paper bags for grass clippings, pine straw/cones, and other small debris. PLASTIC BAGS ARE PROHIBITED FOR COLLECTION OF YARD WASTE.
• Yard waste containers must weigh less than 50 lbs.
• All materials should be at curbside by no later than 7a.m. on each collection day.
• Cut tree trunks, limbs, branches into 4 foot or less sections stacked at curbside.
• Place containerized yard waste on the street side of a ditch and not cover utility structures. Homeowners will be billed for damage to hidden/covered utilities.
• Bulky items should be placed at curbside no more than 3 days before the scheduled collection day.
• Mixing of yard waste with other materials, litter, or waste will result in the yard waste not being collected until the material has been properly sorted by the resident.

Unsolidified paint, tires, automobile batteries, construction and demolition debris, land clearing debris are examples of some of the materials which are NOT collected by Chatham County.