Taipei Garbage Truck Schedule in English: How to Know Exactly When the Truck Comes

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The Taipei garbage truck schedule, explained in English: which days trucks run, what time they reach your street, and how to track New Taipei trucks live.

The Taipei garbage truck schedule is simple once you know where to look: trucks run five days a week, never on Wednesday or Sunday, and each truck stops at the same corner at the same minute every collection day. The hard part is finding out what that minute is for your street when every official source is in Chinese.

The fastest way, and the one we recommend, is our free Garbage Truck Tracker. Tap "Use my location" and it lists every stop within 500 m, with the next arrival time, the walking distance and the address in English. In New Taipei it also shows where the truck is right now. This guide explains the schedule, how to read the tracker, and what to do when the truck and your life don't line up.

Bags of recycling loaded on hand carts at a Taipei street corner, waiting for the 5 pm truck

Photo: ThomasYehYeh via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

How the Taipei garbage truck schedule works

There are no street bins and no curbside pickup in Taipei. Under the city's "trash doesn't touch the ground" policy (垃圾不落地), you carry your bags to a stop and hand them to the truck yourself. If you missed the basics of sorting and bags, start with our guide to trash day in Taiwan and come back.

The schedule itself follows a few fixed rules:

So what time does the garbage truck come in Taipei? We went through the city's own timetable of 4,012 stops. About 95% of them are served between 4 pm and 10 pm, and the busiest hour is 9 pm. Roughly six in ten stops are at 7 pm or later, which is good news if you work office hours and bad news if you work evenings.

New Taipei is different, and better

If you live in Yonghe, Zhonghe, Banqiao, Sanchong, Xindian or anywhere else across the river, you are in New Taipei, and three things change.

The timing is spread out. Of New Taipei's 26,574 stops, about half are in the evening between 5 pm and 10 pm, about a third are in the early afternoon between 1 pm and 5 pm, and some routes run in the morning around 8 or 9 am. Two stops on the same street can be four hours apart, so don't assume your neighbor's time is yours.

Days vary by route. Wednesday and Sunday are still almost universally off, but some routes skip one more day, and recycling and food scraps have their own days per stop. Our tracker shows all three for each stop.

You can see the truck live. New Taipei's Environmental Protection Department publishes the GPS position of every truck, refreshed about every two minutes. That is the closest thing Taiwan has to a bus arrival board for trash, and it's why New Taipei stops in our tracker can say "3 stops away" or "running 6 min late".

Taipei publishes timetables only, with no live positions, so Taipei stops show the scheduled time. In practice Taipei trucks are punctual enough that the timetable works.

How to use the TRA Garbage Truck Tracker

We built the Garbage Truck Tracker because the good apps for this are all in Chinese. It works in any phone browser, no download and no account.

The TRA Garbage Truck Tracker on a phone, listing nearby stops sorted by soonest arrival with English addresses

Step 1: Find your stops. Tap "Use my location" (allow location when your phone asks), or type your address, a landmark or an MRT station in English, like "Gongguan Station". You'll get every stop within 500 m. Switch the radius to 300 m or 1 km if you want fewer or more.

Step 2: Read the circle. The circle on each stop is a countdown. A number means minutes until the truck arrives. A time means later today. "Tomorrow" or a weekday means the next collection day. Red "Now" means the truck should be at that stop right now.

Step 3: Check what each stop takes. The chips under the address show Trash, Recycling and Food scraps. Below that you'll see the trash days for the route. The address is shown in English with the Chinese underneath, which is useful because street signs, maps and your landlord will use the Chinese.

Step 4: Follow the truck live (New Taipei). When a New Taipei truck is out on its route, the stop shows a "Live" line: how many stops away it is, whether it's running early or late, and when its position was last updated. If the truck has already passed your stop today, the tracker says so and jumps to the next collection day, so you don't stand on the corner for nothing.

Step 5: Walk over. "Open in Maps" drops a pin on the exact spot. Leave a few minutes early. Trucks can run ahead of the timetable, and in many neighborhoods they stop for less than a minute.

Two settings worth knowing: "Soonest" sorts by arrival time, which is what you want at 7 pm with a bag in your hand, and "Nearest" sorts by distance, which is what you want when you're picking your regular stop for the week. The list refreshes itself every minute while the page is open.

Make it feel like an app. Add the page to your home screen: in Safari tap Share, then "Add to Home Screen"; in Chrome open the menu and tap "Add to home screen". It then opens full screen with one tap, like any other app.

Which tool should you use? Our honest pick

There are three ways to find your truck time. Here's how we'd choose:

What we don't recommend is waiting for the music. Für Elise or A Maiden's Prayer tells you the truck is close, but by the time you hear it from the shower, it's often too late.

A routine that never misses the truck

After helping plenty of newcomers through their first months, this is the setup that works:

1. Pick two stops, not one. Find your nearest stop and a backup a few minutes' walk away with a later time. If you miss the first, you walk to the second.

2. Set a phone alarm for 10 minutes before. One repeating alarm on collection days only (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday) beats remembering.

3. Sort as you go. Keep a bag for trash, one for recycling and a lidded container for food scraps by the door. Sorting at 7:40 pm with the truck around the corner is how bottles end up in the trash bag. A sealed food scrap container also stops the cockroach problem we cover in keeping pests out of your Taipei apartment.

4. Keep bags in stock. Buy official bags at any convenience store; our guide to Taiwan convenience stores covers what else they do. Taipei and New Taipei bags have been accepted in both cities since 2019.

5. Watch the holidays. Collection pauses for several days over Lunar New Year, and the cities post special schedules around long weekends. The tracker follows the regular timetable, so check the city's notice before a holiday.

A woman carrying bags of recycling to a Taipei recycling truck while crew members sort items into sacks

Photo: ThomasYehYeh via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

What it costs to get it wrong

Leaving bags on the street is the one thing not to do. Unattended trash breaks the Waste Disposal Act, and since the July 2026 amendment Article 50 allows fines from NT$1,200 up to NT$100,000 for not disposing of household waste properly, up from a previous maximum of NT$6,000. Using a regular plastic bag instead of an official one is also a fine. Neighbors do report it, and cities pay rewards for reports.

If you do miss the truck, keep the bag inside, sealed, until the next stop on your list. In summer, put food scraps in the freezer overnight. It sounds odd, and it works.

When the schedule just doesn't fit your life

Some schedules never line up: night shifts, long commutes, frequent travel, a newborn. You have two practical options.

Let us take it out for you. Our garbage and recycling service is built for exactly this. We agree a pickup schedule with you, you leave your bags at your door, and we collect them, sort them into trash, recycling and food scraps the way the city requires, and hand them over at official collection points. No more rushing home for a 7:30 pm truck. It's available in selected districts of Taipei and New Taipei, so message us on LINE with your address and we'll tell you whether you're covered and quote for your household.

Choose your next apartment with trash in mind. Many elevator buildings have a trash room you can use any time, and that one feature removes the truck from your life completely. If you're moving soon, our home search team checks how trash works in every apartment we view with you. See TRA's home search, and the building types guide for which buildings tend to have one.

FAQ

What days does the garbage truck come in Taipei?

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. There is no collection on Wednesday or Sunday anywhere in Taipei, and almost no New Taipei routes run on those days either.

What time does the garbage truck come in Taipei?

It depends on your street. Most Taipei stops are served between 4 pm and 10 pm, with the busiest hour at 9 pm. New Taipei has afternoon and morning routes too. Look up your exact stop in the Garbage Truck Tracker.

Is there a garbage truck app in English for Taiwan?

The official and popular apps are in Chinese. Our free tracker is in English, runs in your phone browser and can be added to your home screen so it opens like an app.

Can I see where the garbage truck is right now?

In New Taipei, yes: the city shares truck GPS positions every couple of minutes, and the tracker shows how many stops away the truck is. Taipei publishes timetables only, so Taipei stops show the scheduled time.

Does the garbage truck come on public holidays?

Usually yes on ordinary holidays, but collection stops for a few days over Lunar New Year and the cities publish special schedules around long weekends. Check the city's notice before a holiday.

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