Janice Shanks carried two bags of refuse into Portsmouth Mayor David Malone's office on Friday morning.
Shanks says she had more garbage than normal because of a holiday family get-together, and the lack of collection put her in "a real pickle."
Malone accepted the trash and says he will take it to the city's waste disposal department.
Malone says certain routes were skipped so the city could avoid paying overtime for the holiday work. He says there was confusion over how notice was sent out to residents.