Alpharetta, GA Landscaping Rules: Composting (2026)

Section 38-5 of the Alpharetta Code of Ordinances spends most of its text on curbside collection: mandatory separation of grass, leaves, pine straw, thatch, pine cones and hedge clippings into approved containers, and a rule in subsection (c) that the city will not pick up yard waste placed in a plastic bag or cardboard box, or bulky material like tree stumps and limbs over three feet long or six inches thick. Subsection (d) then carves out the opposite option: nothing in this section shall be deemed to prohibit an occupier of land within the city from mulching or composting yard waste for use on the premises.

That is the entire operative text on composting, and it is permissive rather than regulatory, since the city imposes no registration, bin specification, setback or odor standard on a residential compost pile anywhere else in Chapter 38 or the definitions in section 38-1. The practical effect is that a homeowner who keeps grass clippings, leaves, hedge trimmings and similar plant material out of the curbside program entirely, mulching or composting it on the lot instead, is doing exactly what subsection (d) contemplates and owes nothing to the city's collection fee schedule in section 38-16 for that material.

If a compost pile itself becomes offensive or noisome, though, it can still fall under the general nuisance provision in section 38-14, since that section reaches garbage or yard waste kept in a way that becomes a nuisance to neighboring property owners, with citation and prosecution handled the same way as any other nuisance under section 38-15.