Appleton, WI Trash & Recycling: Yard Waste Collection (2026)

Section 15-33(n) sets the rule: leaves are collected curbside during a fall collection period as designated by the Department of Public Works, and any person can instead take leaves to a designated City recycling site, covering or containing the load in transport. The Fall Leaf Collection page, whose map image is labeled Leaf Collection Map 2026, prints the dates: collections are at 2-week intervals from October 12 through November 20. Zone 1 weeks are October 12 - 16, October 26 - 30 and November 9 - 13. Zone 2 weeks are October 19 - 23, November 2 - 6 and November 16 - 20. The page does not print which day of its week a street is collected.

The leaf page says to rake out on the Sunday night prior to your collection week. Section 15-31(a) sets a different window for yard waste or brush: placed for pickup by 3:00 a.m. on the day of collection, but not before 5:00 p.m. of the day preceding the regularly scheduled pickup.

Placement turns on the two vac areas, where vacuum units are used. The page links a city GIS address lookup to check whether you sit in one. Outside the vac areas, residential properties put leaves, bundled brush and bagged yard waste in the street gutter, not on the terrace. Inside them they use the terrace between street and sidewalk, never the street or the sidewalk, and do not mix yard waste, brush and leaves together. In every collection area, brush bundles and yard waste bags stay separate from leaf piles.

The street rule is § 15-31(g), repeated in § 16-18: except during times permitted by the Department of Public Works, no person removes yard waste, brush, grass clippings or other yard debris onto any public street. Leaves cannot be burned within the City (§ 6-11(b)) or mixed with domestic or commercial wastes (§ 15-30(j)), and leaves blocking the safe passage of any sidewalk are a declared public nuisance (§ 12-30(19)).

Brush follows § 15-30(d): four-foot lengths, bundles no larger than two feet in diameter and no more than forty-five pounds, branches no wider than three inches. The leaf page bans stumps, root balls and logs, takes only lawn and leaf bags as containers, and sends potted plants, pumpkins and vegetables to the black garbage cart. Section 15-33(g) says the City will not collect grass clippings.