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

La Habra folds yard waste into its citywide organics program adopted under Chapter 8.04, effective January 1, 2022 under Ordinance 1838 to meet the state's SB 1383 short-lived climate pollutant rules. Section 8.04.030 defines 'green waste' as shrubbery, tree trimmings, yard waste, grass, weeds, straw or leaves, wood chips and other household garden organic materials, and separately defines 'green container waste' as that material collected in a green-lidded cart under a service that bars refuse or non-organic recyclables from the same container. Section 8.04.270 makes single-family generators subscribe to the city's collection service for all solid waste on the premises, and subsection (C) requires source-separated green container organic waste, including food waste, to go in the green container, recyclables in the blue container and everything else in the gray container, with a specific bar on putting gray-container material into the green or blue cart.

Residents may still reduce or manage green waste on-site, including through backyard composting or a community composting site, without violating the subscription rule. A separate exception in § 8.04.150(C) lets a gardening, landscaping or tree-trimming contractor haul green waste it generates as an incidental part of its own service, using its own equipment, without needing the city's exclusive franchise agreement that otherwise governs all hauling in La Habra.