Cobb County, GA Trash & Recycling: Yard Waste Collection (2026)

Cobb County Code § 102-10 has barred mixing yard trimmings with municipal solid waste in the unincorporated county since September 1, 1996, and the board of commissioners readopted the section as recently as November 20, 2025. The code defines "yard trimmings or yard trash" as leaves, brush, grass clippings, shrub and tree prunings, discarded Christmas trees, nursery and greenhouse vegetative residuals, and vegetative matter from landscaping and maintenance, excluding mining, agricultural, and silvicultural waste. 2 allows. If a resident does not put trimmings out for collection, § 102-10(c) lists the lawful disposal paths: sorting and stockpiling, chipping, composting, using the material as mulch, otherwise recycling it to the maximum extent feasible, or hauling it to a landfill specifically permitted to accept yard trimmings.

Section 102-69(2) separately requires that trimmings set out for pickup be sorted and kept apart from bagged municipal solid waste so the residential collector can handle them under § 102-70(5). Section 102-10(e) carves out one exception to the no-mixing rule: a resident may combine solid waste and yard waste in the same load if it is being hauled directly to an authorized composting facility rather than a landfill. § 15-10-63. Section 102-10(d) ties violations of the mixing ban to the penalty schedule in § 102-14: a first offense is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and/or 60 days in jail, and repeat violations within a 12-month period push the fine toward that $1,000 cap on the second offense and beyond.