Joliet, IL Trash & Recycling: Yard Waste Collection (2026)

Section 14-5 governs yard debris as its own waste stream. No person may knowingly mix landscape waste intended for collection or landfill disposal with other municipal waste, and no one may knowingly put landscape waste into a collection or landfill container unless that container is biodegradable, meaning ordinary hard plastic garbage cans are not an approved way to set out yard waste. The city manager is separately authorized to designate a distinct collection method for landscape waste apart from regular municipal waste pickup, which is why yard waste in Joliet typically runs on a different set-out method than the household cart.

Tree limb disposal is addressed in the general storage-and-collection section rather than § 14-5 itself: § 14-4(d)(5) bars placing limbs of trees or shrubs for collection unless they are cut to lengths under four feet, with a diameter under three inches, and securely tied into bundles. Anything larger than that, such as tree trunk sections or thick branches from storm damage, falls outside the routine collection program the same way construction debris does under § 14-4(d)(8), and needs private arrangement rather than curbside pickup.