Brunswick County, NC Trash & Recycling: Yard Waste Collection (2026)

Sec. 1-11-23(4)b of the Brunswick County Code lists yard waste among the items banned from residential curbside pick-up altogether, alongside construction materials, oil, antifreeze, tires, car batteries, appliances, and hazardous or medical waste; all of it has to go to the county landfill or a convenience site instead of the trash cart. Sec. 1-11-23(14) separately requires that yard waste placed adjacent to or transported upon public roads be securely covered or tied to keep it from depositing on the road or on someone else's property.

At the landfill itself, Sec. 1-11-9(h) requires yard waste to be separated from all other solid waste before disposal, and Sec. 1-11-9(n) caps how much yard waste can be mixed into a load of mixed solid waste delivered to any collection or disposal site or the sanitary landfill at twenty-five (25) percent, with violations drawing the penalties in Article V and possible loss of use of solid waste facilities pending payment of fines. Yard waste, defined in Sec. 1-11-6 as tree branches, limbs, bushes, shrubbery cuttings, lawn grass, vine clippings, and dry leaf rakings, is handled separately from open burning of land-clearing debris under a different article.

These rules apply only in unincorporated Brunswick County; Leland, Southport, Oak Island, Shallotte, and the county's other incorporated towns run their own yard waste programs inside town limits.