Yard Waste Pick Up

Important Tips:

• Set yard waste out by 7AM on your collection day, or after 6PM the night before.
• Place yard waste in barrels marked with “Yard Waste Only” stickers facing the street, or in lawn refuse bags. Paper lawn bags shouldn’t have stickers on them. To request yard waste stickers to place on barrels for yard waste collection, please visit CambridgeMA.Gov/RecycleSupplies. Stickers are also available for pick up at DPW, 147 Hampshire St.
• Sweeping or blowing leaves into the street or sidewalk is strictly prohibited. Residents are required to collect leaves and other yard waste from the public sidewalk and the adjoining curb out to the center of the street.
• Barrels should not exceed 32-gallons and should not weigh more than 50 pounds.
• No plastic bags. Do not staple or tape bags.
• Bundle branches greater than 1 inch in diameter with string and place next to trash.
• If you hire a contractor to clean up your yard, they are required to remove the yard waste and take it to a compost facility.
• During storms, broken branches from a City tree may be placed at the curb within 24 hours after the storm. Please call DPW for collection by our Forestry team. If you have broken branches from a private tree, the property owner must break down the down branches for proper yard waste collection.
• Christmas Trees are collected curbside on the same day as trash, recycle and compost collection during the first two weeks of January. Trees must be bare. No decorations. Do not bag.

Accepted Materials:

• Leaves, Grass, Plants
• Shrub Prunings & Twigs (no more than 1 inch in diameter and 3 feet in length)
• Thick Limbs (3 tied bundles per week, no more than 3 feet in length and diameter) (to be removed by trash crews)
• Pumpkins (pumpkins are also accepted in compost)

Unaccepted Materials:

• No Trash
• No Food
• No Soil, Dirt, Sand, Rocks or Tree Stumps (call a private hauler)
• No Invasive Plants: Certain invasive plants should be trashed, according to a special directive from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. Do not put in compost or yard waste. Plants that must be trashed rather than collected as yard waste include: Kudzu, Black Swallow-Wort, Japanese Knotweed, Purple Loosestrife, Garlic Mustard, Oriental Bittersweet. Dispose of the entire plant. If you have a trash bag(s) of invasive plants, contact DPW in advance (617-349-4800) to help ensure the trash staff remove it.

To see how yard waste is processed, see here.

To go back to the main waste collections webpage, click here.