What Can You Do?
Residents
We thank you for choosing to make the City of Baltimore your home. We hope you agree that your home doesn’t stop at your front door. Baltimore is our collective home, and we share the responsibility of keeping our City clean. Sometimes this even means cleaning up messes others leave behind.
The Bureau of Solid Waste strives to provide better customer service to you. In turn, we ask that you consider the people who deliver this service to your home. In any kind of weather, these men and women pick up what you don’t want.
Please be respectful of our crews and the cleanliness of your community:
- Always place your trash in a can with a tight fitting lid
- Only cans with lids keep trash contained, prevent litter and discourage rodents, stray animals and other pests.
- Always place your trash containers in the proper location the morning of your scheduled trash pick up
- Trash placed out the night before blocks alleyways and
sidewalks and allows more time for animals to break in and
scatter trash
- Never make your trash can heavier than 35 pounds
- Our crews are strong but let’s be reasonable: heavy bags split contributing to litter on our alleys and streets
Trash Disposal: The
Right Way (hangtag PDF download) English | Spanish
If you experience service problems, please let us know. Call 311 and report poor service –include a truck number whenever possible – all City vehicles have an identification number clearly stenciled on or near the cab.
And, if you receive great service, please let us know that, too. Our crews are being asked to take on greater responsibility in effectively collecting your trash. We hope that you will enable us to reward our crews by letting us know when we’re doing it right.
Businesses
We thank you for choosing Baltimore for your business. We hope you agree that making Baltimore cleaner and greener is good for business. We want to make a good impression on our visitors – YOUR customers.
Businesses can keep Baltimore clean and green in many ways:
- Play by the rules: If you have more than 4 containers (or 60 gallons) of litter per pick-up you must contract with a private waste management company for solid waste removal
- Keep your fence line clear of litter: Consider greening your fence line with trees, shrubs or flowers
- Call 311 to report illegal dumping as soon as it occurs: Let us know if your security cameras have captured illegal dumping activity
- Become a sponsor: Find out how your business can benefit by sponsoring the Initiative for a Cleaner Greener Baltimore
- Recycle! Special mixed paper services are provided to City
government buildings and many Baltimore businesses for free.
Call 410.396.4511 for more information.
- Green building construction and renovation: read the latest report from City Council and Baltimore City Green Building Task Force
- Implement energy efficiency in the workplace
- Promote teambuilding and sponsor an employee volunteer day: Planting trees together will benefit your work teams and the community
Trash Disposal: Business Rules (PDF
download) English | Spanish |
Korean
Students
We thank you for choosing one of Baltimore’s many prestigious, educational institutions. You contribute to our City’s community in many positive and lasting ways, and you share in our collective responsibility to keep Baltimore clean and green.
Every student can make a difference by:
- Disposing of trash properly in trash cans
- Discouraging your friends from littering
- Picking up litter around your school, campus and home
- Volunteering to clean and green with your school or surrounding community
Commuters and Visitors
We thank you for choosing Baltimore for your work and play. We love having you visit and we are happy to dispose of the trash you leave behind as long as you leave it in a public trash can. Baltimore residents and businesses spend a great deal of money placing and maintaining trash cans across our city because we want you to use them.
Help us keep Baltimore clean and green:
- Always place your litter in a trash can
- Never litter sidewalks, gutters and streets: it’s dirty, rude and illegal
- Littering is subject to fines
- Suggest a trash can location: if you think we’ve missed a spot that needs a can please tell us via this website or by calling 311
- Tell us if a can is overflowing: please let us know by dialing 311
- Report littering: if you see a motorist littering please dial 311 and provide the incident location and license plate number
- Participate in rideshare and carpool programs: reduce carbon emissions, improve air quality and save money on gasoline
- Take public transportation: Baltimore is home to light rail, MARC trains, and a subway system
- Enjoy Baltimore by bike: Ride along the Gwynns Falls Trail and newly opened Inner Harbor Promenade, among other great bike routes suggested in Baltimore’s Bike Plan
