Community demand for collection services managed by the County continues to grow. Current County staffing and equipment levels do not allow for further expansion of Sanitary Districts serviced directly by DPWES staff beyond the residents currently served. The County is implementing a new service model of outsourcing the collection component of this service. The County will continue managing customer service and on-demand bulk pick up.

Requests for Service

Creation of a Solid Waste Collection area is possible only when a petition is made by a resident, within an area of 50 homes or more, supported by 50% or more valid signatures concurring with the expressed intent of the petition; and is then submitted to the Board of Supervisors for consideration. In cases where residents of an area wish to receive service and the homes are contiguous to an existing Solid Waste Collection area [‘Sanitary District’], the residences may be added to the existing Solid Waste Collection area by canvassing only the number of homes necessary to make the enlargement contiguous to and homogeneous with the existing Solid Waste Collection area.

Discontinuing Service

If residents wish to discontinue trash and recycling service and/or leaf collection service, the process is the same as above and will be submitted as a ‘decreation’ or ‘contraction’ of an existing sanitary district.

Initiation of a Petition

The petition chairperson (either the person who requested the petition or designee) is responsible for contacting the resident/owner of each dwelling unit in the proposed area. Responses must be indicated on the petition survey provided by the Solid Waste Management Program.

Only the signature of the legal homeowner is acceptable on the petition. One signature per residence will be counted. Renters do not have the authority to sign petitions since they are not responsible for the real estate taxes on which the charge is placed, therefore, such signatures will be deemed invalid.

Approval Process

Once the signed petitions are received by the Solid Waste Management Program, signatures are verified, and the petition package is prepared and compiled for submission to the County of Fairfax Board of Supervisors. The Board of Supervisors authorizes the advertisement of a public hearing to be held in the Board Auditorium of the Government Center Building.

The public hearing date is publicized for two consecutive weeks. When the public hearing is held, all support and/or opposition should be expressed by property owners.

Once the proposed area is approved by the Board of Supervisors, the residents will be notified by mail, assigned a trash collection service day, and service will begin according to the timetable. For vacuum leaf collection service, the schedule is published on the County website: Leaf Collection Dates - Schedule and Status. Participating households are charged a user fee on their real estate tax assessment for trash and recycling service, and for vacuum leaf customers, a percentage of their homes assessed value.

Petition Timetable

Trash and Recycling services begin either on Jan. 1 or July 1 of any given year after approval of all petition requests. Vacuum leaf service begins the November following the date of petition approval.

For the administrative preparation of the petitions to be completed, the following timetable applies.

Petitions due: June 30/January 30
Public hearing: October/May
Service(s) begin: Jan. 1/July 1 for trash and recycling. November for vacuum leaf collection.

Contact Information

For more information, or to obtain petition forms, please contact:

Solid Waste Management Program
12000 Government Center Parkway, Suite 458
Fairfax, Virginia 22035-0060
Phone: 703-802-3322, TTY 711
Hours: 7:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. M-F
Email