Tinley Park, IL Landscaping Rules: Composting (2026)

Village Code § 96.16 sets specific physical and placement standards for every home compost setup in Tinley Park. Every compost pile has to sit inside a freestanding bin, capped at 125 cubic feet in volume and five feet in height, and a single residential lot can hold no more than three bins. Only landscape waste, meaning yard trimmings and similar plant material, can go into the pile; the standards do not permit food scraps or other material. Bins and piles must be kept free of conditions that attract or harbor rodents and free of unpleasant odors, and the composting method used has to be one recognized as acceptable by the Illinois Department of Energy and Natural Resources.

Placement is tightly controlled. A bin can never go in a front yard or a corner side yard. It can sit in a side yard only if it stays outside any side yard setback set by the village Zoning Code, and it can sit in a rear yard only if it is kept at least ten feet from any lot line; where the rear yard backs onto a street, the bin has to stay at least 50 feet back from that street.

Section 96.17 puts compliance on both the property owner and any occupant, and § 96.18 declares any composting or bin that breaks these rules a nuisance in its own right, on top of whatever penalty applies under § 96.99.