Bristol, CT Trash & Recycling: Yard Waste Collection (2026)

Sec. 10-12 makes Bristol's yard waste program an opt-in subscription rather than an automatic curbside benefit: a resident has to sign up and pay the fee the Board of Public Works approves before the city will collect any yard waste barrels. Every yard waste barrel must be a city-supplied, city-owned container, and the city reserves the right to enter private property to retrieve barrels left stored outside once the subscription ends. The Department of Public Works will only pick up a yard waste barrel when it carries a valid paid sticker in the designated spot, and Sec.

10-12(d) bars mixing yard waste into rubbish or recycling containers entirely. The Board of Public Works sets the collection periods each year, though the director can extend a collection window and must notify the board when doing so. Bristol layers two seasonal programs on top of the subscription barrel service: Sec. 10-10(a) gives residents curbside leaf bag pickup each spring and fall for leaves bagged in brown, recyclable paper bags only, rejecting bags containing dirt, sand, rocks, or sod and skipping loose leaf piles altogether, while Sec.

10-11(a) covers scheduled brush and branch pickup limited to six-inch-diameter branches bundled into four-foot cubes. Chapter 10 is a citation-enforced chapter under Sec. 23-2, so improperly disposed yard waste, whether mixed into a rubbish barrel or left as an unsubscribed pile, can draw the ninety-dollar Sec. 23-5 fine.