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

Franklin County Code § 24-4 defines yard waste narrowly as solid waste 'consisting solely of vegetative matter resulting from landscaping maintenance, such as leaves, grass limbs, trimmings, etc.,' which keeps it separate from construction debris or general household trash. At the county solid waste transfer station, § 24-59(7) sets a tipping fee of $40.00 per ton for yard waste, covering all parts of trees or shrubbery, but the same subsection flatly states no stumps will be accepted at that rate or otherwise. That $40.00 rate is adopted and can be adjusted each year by the board of commissioners in the county budget ordinance under § 24-60(a).

Yard waste is not simply landfilled: § 24-62 lists it among the materials 'banned from disposal in a landfill by state or county law' that are instead collected and recycled at both the transfer station and the county's various recycling centers, alongside items like corrugated cardboard, lead-acid batteries, and scrap tires. Because yard waste carries its own per-ton fee and its own banned-material recycling track, a hauler who mixes yard waste into a load of ordinary construction or demolition waste risks the chapter's contamination penalty: § 24-5(c) subjects any load found to contain a banned material to a tipping fee of double the normal rate, rising to triple the rate for a repeat offense by the same hauler.