Indianapolis, IN Trash & Recycling: Yard Waste Collection (2026)

Sec. 601-5 of the Code of Indianapolis & Marion County requires owners and occupants to dispose of the leaves that accumulate on their own premises every year. The ordinance allows two paths: burning the leaves as the air pollution control board's rules permit, or otherwise disposing of them by arranging for their removal from the private property. Either way, the ordinance flatly prohibits sweeping leaves into any street, alley or gutter. Sec. 601-1's definition of 'residential solid waste' folds ordinary yard trimmings into the regular collection stream: it expressly includes accumulations of leaves, grass or shrubbery cuttings and other refuse attending the care of lawns, shrubbery, vines, trees and tree limbs generated by a household, so bagged leaves and grass clippings can be set out under the same container and placement rules in Sec.

601-3 and 601-4. That definition draws a line, though: it excludes discarded building materials, trees, brush and other vegetation resulting from the activities of building contractors, commercial tree trimmers or commercial lawn services, along with larger loads of sod, dirt and land-clearing debris, which need special handling outside normal residential collection. Burning leaves is only lawful within whatever limits the air pollution control board sets; that board, not the department of public works, controls when and how open burning of yard debris is allowed in Marion County.