Baltimore's busiest trash drop-off site could close within three years

Baltimore residents who rely on the Sisson Street Trash Drop-Off Center for trash, recycling, bulk items and other household waste may still have the site for now, but the city has put its future on a countdown. A mayoral task force has recommended keeping 2840 Sisson Street open until seven specific conditions are met, including a complete rehabilitation of Reedbird and continued work at Bowley’s Lane, before the city even considers closing the site.

The decision matters far beyond one transfer station in northwest Baltimore. Sisson Street has long been one of the city’s most used drop-off points, especially for residents in nearby neighborhoods who need a dependable place to haul refuse without paying private disposal fees. If it closes before a replacement system is fully ready, city households and small haulers could face longer drives, more congestion at other facilities and a steeper hassle in getting rid of everyday waste.

Mayor Brandon M. Scott created the Sisson Street Task Force in September 2025 after public outcry over a proposal to relocate the center just down the hill to 2801 Falls Road, on property owned by Potts and Callahan near the Jones Falls. The task force met nearly a dozen times, held two in-person hearings with public testimony and voted unanimously to advance its final report. The panel’s work recast the fight over Sisson Street as both a sanitation question and a land-use issue, because the site sits on property long sought for redevelopment.

The city says Baltimore residents can use five residential drop-off centers at no cost, but Sisson Street has also served as one of the main full-service options while Reedbird is offline. The Baltimore City Department of Public Works closed the Reedbird Residential Recycling Drop-Off Center on May 17, 2025, for modernization work expected to take about 18 months to two years. CBS Baltimore has reported that the city’s sanitation-yard modernization effort is backed by about $49 million in capital funding and grants.

Any shutdown of Sisson Street would also require Baltimore to move household hazardous waste to two other locations first. Right now, the city’s source-reduction page says that waste is accepted at Sisson Street only on the first Friday and Saturday of the month from April through October. Blue Water Baltimore warned that closing Sisson Street without stronger neighborhood-level alternatives could increase illegal dumping and push more waste into parks and streets; the group also said the proposed Falls Road relocation site sits near the Jones Falls and in a FEMA flood hazard zone.

Samantha Horn, the task force vice chair and secretary of the Greater Remington Improvement Association, said the Reedbird and Bowley’s Lane renovations should benefit the city and help open the way for walkable, mixed-use redevelopment in Remington. For Baltimore households, though, the immediate question is simpler: whether the city can keep trash and recycling moving without making disposal harder, farther away and more expensive in practice.