Dallas Sanitation officials recently announced the City will move to end alley garbage pickup and transition to curb pickup for more than 20,000 customers in 2026.
The sanitation department’s website has an interactive map of affected areas and can be found here. Multiple neighborhoods throughout East Dallas will be affected, including (but not limited to) Greenland Hills/The M Streets, Vickery Place, Swiss Avenue, Junius Heights, Lakewood, Lakewood Heights, Casa Linda, Casa View, Old Lake Highlands, Lochwood, Forest Hills, Little Forest Hills and White Rock Hills as well as areas between Mockingbird and Lovers Lanes.
Blue dots on the map (see below) signify a transition the week of Jan. 19, while green dots will transition the week of July 20, 2026, according to the City’s website.
Screenshot from the City of Dallas’ website regarding alley to curb collection transition.
On July 3, Dallas Sanitation Services director Cliff Gillespie told The Dallas Morning News that around 26,000 homes would be transitioned from alley to curb pickup. A similar effort in 2024 was stymied by considerable public outcry. The new plan was developed in response to those concerns. In total, 95,000 households currently utilize garbage pickup in the City of Dallas.
Alley pickup customers slated to move to curbside pickup in January mostly live in neighborhoods with 8-9 feet wide alleys and where the vast majority of homes have front driveways. Customers with dead-end alleys that spanning than 200 feet or semi-paved and unpaved alleys will also make the transition in January. Areas with smaller proportions of front driveways will make the jump in the summer.
“We see routine equipment damage that is running in 8- and 9-foot alleys, contact with fences, utility poles, overhead wires. More troubling are the worker injuries and near-misses for electrocution and fires,” Gillespie recently told the DMN.
The move is primarily motivated by safety concerns for sanitation workers and the ongoing shift to automated trucks, which the department’s FAQ page describes as “the industry standard for safety and efficiency.” Alley pickups are typically serviced by rear-loading trucks manned by three-person crews, which the website says are “labor-intensive and costly.”
Dallas Sanitation has also proposed an adjustment in the sanitation fee structure to account for the change. While the City currently charges a flat fee for residential pickup, the proposal recommends the adoption of a tiered fee structure that charges remaining alley pickup customers more than those with curbside pickup. The proposal will need to be approved by council, unlike the upcoming service transition, which is at Gillespie’s discretion.
According to the department’s website, a public awareness campaign will notify neighbors of the change and provide guidance on new pickup procedures.
Those without an able-bodied person in their household can sign up for the Helping Hands Program. The program sends sanitation workers to assist neighbors during garbage collection. Residents can sign up online or call 3-1-1 to enroll.
