By Bill Oakey – October2, 2025

At a recent neighborhood association meeting, I learned a whole lot more than I bargained for. While reading my notes later, the phrase “dumpsters in the night” kept haunting me. Somebody asked the featured speaker, a City Council member, what could be done to get rid of the awful noise from trash haulers emptying commercial dumpsters, and waking them up in the wee hours of the morning.

This Council member’s short answer was that we have a noise ordinance, but we don’t have the resources to enforce it. Apparently, the-middle-of-the-night banging, clanging and otherwise haranguing noise has been disrupting sleep in neighborhoods all over town, for a good many years. I immediately wondered why the City Council doesn’t just pass an ordinance restricting the hours that commercial trash haulers can operate near residential neighborhoods.

Since we don’t live in Houston, we can’t easily ask a rocket scientist to help solve this insurmountable, years-long problem. On this blog, my first instinct is to research how a problem is approached in that great big world outside of Austin. Here’s what I found from an AI search:

1. Many cities have passed local ordinances restricting the hours during which commercial dumpsters can be serviced in or near residential areas. Typical rules prohibit pickups before 7 a.m. or after 10 p.m. and impose fines for violations, making enforcement possible when residents report early-morning disturbances. For example, Chicago enforces such time windows for noise control, with fines between $300 and $1,000 for violations. Urbana, Illinois has considered similar operational ordinances as they found noise limits alone difficult to enforce.

2. A growing number of cities rely on waste management schedules and advanced route planning software. By mapping out efficient daytime-only collection routes for commercial properties close to residences, cities minimize conflict between necessary services and quality-of-life concerns.

3. Cities and waste haulers in progressive regions deploy newer, quieter garbage trucks with technology that reduces mechanical banging, limits engine noise, and avoids beeping backup alarms where possible. Converting fleets to side-load trucks can reduce noise, though upfront investment is required. Advocates suggest cities incentivize or require such upgrades for haulers operating in dense urban or mixed-use neighborhoods.

I will run this by a couple of City Council members. In the meantime, grab a pillow when it’s time for bed. Think back to that old Frank Sinatra song, but with slightly modified lyrics:

Dumpsters in the night, those circumstances
Wondering in the night
What were the chances we could get some sleep
Before the night was through