Jacksonville Beach, FL Landscaping Rules: Composting (2026)

The composting rule sits in Section 27-22, titled Accumulation of yard waste, in Chapter 27 of the Jacksonville Beach Code. The section does two things. First, it makes it unlawful for any resident, occupant or anyone to deposit yard waste on an adjoining lot or premises, whether vacant or improved, occupied or unoccupied, or on any other lot or premises, or on a street, plaza, alley or park, or in any canal, waterway, lake or pool within the city. Second, it carves out the owner's own mulch or compost pile: yard waste containing no combustible matter or matter which will, during decay, give off offensive odors may be accumulated by the owner as a mulch or compost pile in the rear of the owner's premises upon which it accumulated.

Three conditions follow from that text. The pile belongs to the owner of the premises, the waste must have come from those same premises, and the pile goes in the rear. The section prints no bin size, height limit or setback for a pile, and it does not require a permit. Yard waste has its own meaning in Section 27-1: leaves, grass cuttings, shrubbery cuttings or other refuse from the care of lawns, gardens, shrubbery, vines and trees. That definition leaves out dirt, soil or sod removed in renovating lawns, and it leaves out limbs and cuttings over six (6) inches in diameter or five (5) feet in length.

Material that is not kept for composting is collected by the city's solid waste franchisee under Section 27-30(b), in an approved receptacle or in a pile that meets the size and street-distance limits there.