Fees to dispose of yard waste?

Joined
Oct 15, 2006
Messages
1,718
Location
Southern Ontario
So my elderly mother took a bag of leaves to the dump this morning and they charged her 7 bucks! It’s always been free before. I’ve never heard of paying to dispose of leaves or grass. I’ll have to set them up with a way to mulch them or haul them back to my place when I visit for free disposal.

Do they charge to dump leaves at your local landfill?
 
No idea as I don't have to, if I put them in a trash bag they will take them at my curb with the weekly garbage pickup, but instead I just blow them away from structures and mulch-mow them away, except for the ones I bury in containers to compost for next year's container gardening. Leaves may be a pain when all over the lawn but are an asset to fertilize things, especially here where the native soil is high clay.
 
There has been a charge for most organic stuff at compositing sites here for a very long time. There are a few cities that offer it for free and one local tribal facility that offers free drop off to some city residents...
 
This is part of the trend in recent years to require you to pay to dispose of recyclables and biodegradables. Years ago disposal was free to you, or sometimes you even got paid for those types of refuse. It's a racket like so much else.
 
So my elderly mother took a bag of leaves to the dump this morning and they charged her 7 bucks! It’s always been free before. I’ve never heard of paying to dispose of leaves or grass. I’ll have to set them up with a way to mulch them or haul them back to my place when I visit for free disposal.

Do they charge to dump leaves at your local landfill?
It doesn't cost that much here to get rid of a bag of garbage! I think garbage is $2 a bag and leaves/grass clippings is free. You have to empty the bags if you use them, but that is no big deal.
 
Nothing additional. It is included in our city trash pickup.
Put them either in trash cans or paper yard bags.
 
It is not uncommon to be charged in some US locales.

For what it is worth, it costs something for municipalities to deal with disposed compost. One way (direct fees) or another (taxes) it has to be paid for by someone.
 
Unfortunately there is no leaf pickup where they live. One time they tried to disguise the leaves by putting them in a garbage bag and putting it with the rest of the garbage for pickup but the garbage man realized it was leaves, tore open the bag, and threw it back into their driveway lol. I don’t know why he would have gotten so upset.

I mulch up as much as I can with their tractor when I’m there but there’s about 40 huge deciduous trees in their yard and the sheer volume of leaves is completely outrageous. The grass quickly gets overwhelmed with mulch and after that it’s gotta be hauled away or burned.
 
The garbageman was likely upset as the garbage company can be fined by the landfill operator for dumping waste that doesn't belong there. In Minnesota, it is illegal to landfill yard waste (and has been since 1992).

And as to why would they charge for it, the yard waste operations in this area are usually stand alone - meaning that they handle yard waste, brush, etc... And the cost to grind, mulch, operate the equipment, pay taxes on the site let alone buy or lease it, etc... aren't free...
 
In Delaware recycling stuff like cardboard, cans, plastic containers is free. But everything beyond that is charged by weight with a $8 minimum. Whether its yard waste, garbage, refrigerator with Freon or a mattress.
 
My city furnishes a yard waste toter and picks it up in a separate truck on garbage day. Yard waste is then recycled and ground into either mulch or compost and sold back to residents for a nominal fee. A pickup load of mulch or compost is typically about $10 and the city loads it into your truck or trailer with a front end loader. Residents put their leaves to the curb and the city comes by on designated weeks in the fall with huge vacuum trucks and collects them then dumps them at the city owned yard waste facility. Non city residents aren’t allowed to use this facility. The “charges/fees” are built into our city tax system so yes, there is a fee.
 
Last edited:
Leaves and yard waste, plus other compostables, are put into a separate container and picked up and composted by the city. This compost is then distributed free a couple of times per year to residents who want it and is also used by the city in their landscaping projects.

There is a second program on the 1st Wednesday of every month, where West County households can come and get up to 2 cubic yards of compost per month.
 
Garbage pickup cost is rolled into my taxes. They'll take garbage cans full of yard waste in my town. We're "limited" to 8 cans per household and one big item like an appliance, piece of furniture, etc (which counts as one of the 8). They'll take a whole sectional couch and crush it up along with your garbage. Brush, big leaf piles, refrigerators, tires, etc are picked up separately by the town. We've got it really good in terms of waste pickup. It's not necessarily the case with neighboring towns.
 
Our recycling center is run by the county. It is pretty reasonable for garbage. They charge by the bag or can weigh you if you have a truck or trailer load. Compostable grass/leaves etc is free. I have a lot of trees so I usually take several pickup loads of leaves every year and mulch the rest. They then sell the compost. I think there is a small fee of less than $50 on my property taxes, but it is worth it to have it available.
 
Back
Top