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

Article 11 of Chapter 7, Title 4 governs green waste and leaf collection. 1102 defines 'large green waste' as shrubbery, brush, tree limbs and similar materials, and 'small green waste' as leaves, grass clippings, vines, twigs and prunings two feet or shorter and six inches or less in diameter. 1103, large green waste must be placed in the alley (no more than three feet into it, one foot from the neighbor's fence) or, where no alley exists, at the curb (no more than three feet into the street, one and one-half feet from the curb).

No limb may exceed six feet in length or six inches in diameter, and no single piece may weigh more than fifty pounds. The Public Works Director assigns each property a monthly pickup week from January through November; the City collects no large green waste in December, only leaves. Residents may not set material out more than seventy-two hours before their assigned day. Small green waste and organic waste go in the resident's organic recycling container, capped at one hundred pounds unless the Director authorizes more, and are collected on the same schedule as black garbage containers under Title 5, Chapter 5.

Leaves may go loose in the street only between November 1 and December 31, never in plastic bags and never in alleys. Christmas trees follow the same large-green-waste rules but must be stripped of stands, tinsel, lights and wire, and flocked or fireproofed trees are excluded. 1105 separately makes it unlawful to dump green waste or leaves on public property without Public Works authorization or onto a vacant lot without the owner's written consent, and declares that dumping an abatable nuisance.