City Yard Waste Pickup Resumes April 3rd

The City of Cambridge offers residential curbside collection of Yard Waste from April 1 through December 31. Yard waste is banned from all landfills and incinerators in Massachusetts. This includes all leaves, grass, plants, shrub pruning, twigs and more. Place your yard waste out on the curb on the same day as your trash, recycling and compost collection by 7am or after 6pm the night before.

Some important tips to remember for this season, if you hire a contractor to clean up your yard, they are responsible for removing the yard waste themselves. Residents are responsible for getting their own barrel or they may use paper lawn bags. The barrel cannot exceed 32 gallons and no more than 50 pounds at the curb. The barrel must have a red "Yard Waste Only" sticker facing the street to be collected. Residents can request a sticker at CambridgeMa.Gov/RecycleSupplies or they can come by DPW to pick them up.

You can help reduce our impact on climate change by placing leaves out for yard waste collection where they’ll be composted to make rich soil. After yard waste is collected at the curb, it’s composted in Brockton, MA and used on local fields, gardens, and more. We have also provided a link to a set of videos explaining and showing this process. Watch the videos in order starting from 1 to 10, to have a better understanding of what we do. To see how yard waste is processed, click here. The City hosts two giveaways per year of the finished compost from Cambridge’s yard waste. The next finished compost giveaway is Saturday, April 22 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Joan Lorentz Park.

If you have any questions or need any immediate assistance please contact recycle@cambridgema.gov.