Gilroy, CA Trash & Recycling: Yard Waste Collection (2026)

Article II of Chapter 12 governs garden refuse separately from ordinary garbage and rubbish. Section 12.24 defines "garden refuse" as leaves, grass cuttings, weeds, vines, shrubbery, brush and tree trimmings, but excludes tree limbs thicker than four inches in diameter; anything else discarded is "other refuse" and cannot be mixed in with it under Section 12.26, or the city will not collect it. Residents set garden refuse out at the same alley or curb location used for garbage under Section 12.18, per Section 12.25, and it must go out the day before collection under Section 12.29.

Tree surgeons and professional tree trimmers are barred from using residential curbside service: Section 12.28 requires them to haul away and dispose of all trimmings and garden refuse they generate themselves. Where streets are paved gutter to gutter, only loose leaves may be swept into the street, and Section 12.31 fixes the placement window at not less than twelve inches and not more than forty-eight inches from the curb so the street sweeper can pick them up. Everything else must be bundled or containerized: Section 12.32 limits bundles to four feet in length, eighteen inches in height or width, and fifty pounds, or a suitable container of no more than fifty pounds, and anything set out, other than a permanent garbage receptacle, is hauled away for good, not returned empty.

Violating any provision of Chapter 12, including these garden-refuse placement rules, is an infraction under Section 12.35, and each day a violation continues counts as a separate offense.