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

Menifee Code of Ordinances § 6.30.010 defines YARD WASTE narrowly: leaves, grass cuttings and shrubs generated by routine household or property maintenance. Absent a specific exemption, all solid waste including yard waste must go out through the city's franchised hauler or a permitted self-hauler under § 6.30.030, since only a franchisee, a permitted self-hauler, or narrow exceptions may lawfully collect discarded material under § 6.30.060(H). One of those exceptions, § 6.30.060(H)(4), lets a gardener or landscaper collect, transport and dispose of yard waste as an incidental part of the landscaping service they already provide to a customer, so long as the hauling is not the primary purpose of the arrangement and no third party is hired solely to move the material.

Commercial premises and multi-family dwellings generating four cubic yards or more of organic waste per week, which includes yard waste, have an additional obligation under § 6.30.090: they must arrange organics collection through the franchisee, compost or recycle the material onsite, self-haul it to a permitted composting or recycling facility, or have their landscaper deliver it to such a facility under § 6.30.090(B)(4). Burning yard waste in the open is separately banned; § 6.30.060(K) makes it unlawful and a public nuisance to burn any solid waste in the city outside an approved, permitted incinerator.

Violations of the yard-waste provisions carry the same penalty structure as the rest of Chapter 6.30 under § 6.30.120: a misdemeanor up to $1,000 and six months in jail, or a graduated infraction fine of $100 to $500.