Mobile, AL Trash & Recycling: Yard Waste Collection (2026)

Mobile treats yard debris as a category of household trash under Sec. 25-6 rather than a separate service, so it rides the every-other-week trash route set under Sec. 25-3 rather than the weekly garbage route. Subsection (b)(1) caps the free pickup at roughly two cubic yards, sized in the ordinance as a pile three feet by three feet by six feet, or the equivalent of fifteen bags of leaves, per household, per collection cycle. Subsection (e) requires leaves, straw, and grass clippings to be bagged or boxed before they go to the curb; loose piles left unbagged are not the compliant form even if they fall under the volume cap.

Anything above the two-cubic-yard limit is treated as an oversized load under (b)(2): the city will still collect it, but only for a fee scaled to the size of the load, and the load cannot sit at the curb until the city has approved it. Subsection (f) draws a hard line on brush: limbs thicker than twelve inches in diameter or longer than six feet are not collectible as household trash at all, and neither is debris from a hired tree-removal company, construction and demolition material, or anything generated by a commercial project.

Placement matters as much as volume: Sec. 25-6(c) bars putting material out more than 48 hours ahead of the scheduled pickup day, and (d) requires it to sit on the resident's own property as close to the street as possible without blocking sidewalks, gutters, fire hydrants, or low power lines. A pile blocked by a parked car or otherwise missed on its scheduled run does not get a separate return trip; the property owner has to move it. org.