Millcreek, PA Landscaping Rules: Composting (2026)

The composting right sits in § 110-4C of the Township's Solid Waste and Recycling chapter, in a list of exceptions to the chapter's collection mandates. Subsection C(2) says nothing in the chapter prohibits any person from building or maintaining a compost pile of grass clippings, leaves, weeds, soil, hedge and/or shrubbery clippings and other organic material, with one condition: no nuisance may result. The same list protects a farmer's manure pile under the same nuisance condition, and § 110-4C(3) protects taking recyclable materials or leaf waste to a licensed recycling or composting facility. Section 110-4C(2) prints no permit step and no size or bin standard.

The nuisance condition is defined in Chapter 40, Article II. Section 40-7H declares a nuisance any composting activity which, by virtue of size, location, lack of proper controls, content or other reason, unreasonably interferes with the reasonable use, comfort and enjoyment of a neighbor's property, or endangers the health, safety or welfare of neighboring occupants, Township residents or users of Township streets, property or facilities. Section 40-7F separately lists the excessive or unreasonable accumulation of compost, humus, leaf waste or similar material causing odors, fumes or unsightly appearance to neighboring property owners. A pile that is too large, too close to a property line, or poorly managed can therefore cross from protected to prohibited.

Chapter 110 closes the loop in § 110-6C(8): accumulating or storing municipal waste, recyclable materials or leaf waste so as to create a nuisance violates both Chapter 110 and Chapter 40, Article II, and the Township can abate the nuisance and bill the cost. Residents on the Township residential contract also have a separate leaf option: tied Township-designated bags set out for the six-week spring and fall leaf collection under § 110-8 and § 110-10G.