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

Madera Municipal Code § 5-3.25 makes sorting mandatory for every solid waste collection customer in the city: green and yard waste must be separated from garbage before pickup, and the city runs separate collections for each stream on its own schedule. It is unlawful to mix garbage into the green container, or to place anything but green/yard waste there. A customer who declines to use the city's green-waste program must arrange private recycling for yard debris; the code forbids discarding it into the gray garbage container as ordinary trash.

Containers go out to the curb, on the travel-way side, or to an authorized rear alley, and must come back onto the property between the front setback line and the rear yard fence no later than midnight of collection day, per § 5-3.23 and § 5-3.24. The city can levy a fine set by City Council resolution against a customer who will not comply, and under § 5-3.21 continued noncompliance lets the city pull the green container altogether and replace it with an ordinary refuse container billed at the standard collection rate. A customer who loses green-waste service that way can ask the City Engineer to restore it in writing, and if the Engineer refuses, can appeal to the City Council, which must give ten days' written notice before a hearing and take oral and written evidence before deciding, under § 5-3.22.