Hempstead, NY Trash & Recycling: Yard Waste Collection (2026)

Section 128-68 defines YARD WASTE as grass clippings, leaves, bundles of twigs or branches, brush, tree trunks, logs and stumps up to six inches in diameter, natural holiday trees and wreaths, and other general tree and yard or garden waste. Section 128-70B(2)(f) sets the operative collection rule: yard waste must be separated from the rest of a household's solid waste and placed at the curb only on the yard-waste-only collection day that the Department of Sanitation establishes, rather than mixed in with regular garbage or rubbish pickup.

The same subsection carves out one exception for residents: grass clippings may simply be left on the lawn instead of bagged for collection. Commercial landscape gardeners do not get that option; if they do not leave the clippings on the lawn for natural recycling, they must remove everything they cut from the property themselves rather than leaving it for the Town to collect. Section 128-73 separately confirms that nothing in the recycling article stops a property owner from using their own yard waste for compost, mulch, or other agricultural, horticultural, gardening or landscaping purposes on-site.

Landscapers who want to use the Town's organic-material disposal site altogether need their own annual landscape disposal permit under Section 128-8, issued by the Department of Sanitation for a $150 fee, running each fiscal year from April 1 to March 31, and governed by rules the Department publishes and can update with 30 days' posted notice.