Billings, MT Trash & Recycling: Yard Waste Collection (2026)

Sec. 21-205 gives Billings residents two disposal routes. The first is the yard waste cart, which is used only for yard waste and must not contain plastic bags, so clippings and leaves go in loose. The second is the regular solid waste cart, where yard waste must be bagged and tied before it goes in.

Sec. 21-201 defines what counts. Yard waste means leaves, grass clippings, weeds, garden waste, and tree, shrub, and branch trimmings not exceeding three feet in length, plus twigs, limbs, and trunks not exceeding three feet in length and six inches in diameter at the largest end. Dirt, sod, rocks, animal waste, and construction debris are excluded, so none of those belong in a yard waste cart.

Yard waste service is the city's seasonal collection service, run with automated yard waste carts supplied by the Public Works department. The service period is set by Public Works in consultation with the city council, so the season is an administrative decision and not a calendar printed in the ordinance. Under Sec. 21-207(a), Public Works provides one cart for residential service and up to two carts for yard waste service. Residential customers in subdivisions without on-site storage for yard waste carts are not eligible and are not given carts, and Public Works designates which subdivisions are ineligible.

Contractors are treated differently. Sec. 21-205 requires all yard waste from a contractor's work to be removed by means provided by the contractor, at the contractor's sole expense. Sec. 21-211(b) adds that tree trimmings and yard waste generated by anyone doing work for compensation must be disposed of in a manner approved by Public Works. Commercial customers have no access to yard waste service at all.

Extra yard waste has a third route. Sec. 21-218 allows on-call collection of yard waste as an extra item, with the material securely tied in bundles not heavier than 75 pounds, no more than four feet in length, and no more than two feet in diameter. Extra-item charges follow the annual rate resolution that the city council adopts after a public hearing under Sec. 21-229.