Carver County, MN Landscaping Rules: Composting (2026)

070 carves out a specific exemption for individual residents. 070(A), yard waste generally cannot go to a mixed municipal solid waste (MMSW) disposal or processing facility unless that facility has a licensed yard waste compost area or an exemption from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the county. 070(C) exempts a compost site "maintained by individual residents or businesses for wastes generated solely from the residence or business occupying the property the composting site is located on" from that county licensing requirement. That exemption comes with two conditions written directly into the section: the pile must be maintained in an orderly and nuisance-free manner, and it cannot sit closer than five feet to the property line, nor closer to a neighbor's primary residential structure than it is to the primary residential structure on its own lot.

005, is the office that fields complaints about compost sites that drift into nuisance territory, since the exemption from licensing does not exempt a resident from the setback and maintenance conditions themselves. The rule applies countywide but functions mainly as guidance for the unincorporated area and townships, since cities inside Carver County run their own municipal codes.