Omaha, NE Trash & Recycling: Yard Waste Collection (2026)

Omaha Municipal Code § 33-44 sets the bag standard: paper bags of durable construction, closed without plastic or metal ties, with a wet strength of 50 pounds or greater and a capacity of 30 gallons. Outside the free window, each bag needs a supplemental yard waste collection sticker proving the excess yard waste fee was paid. The code hands the dates of the sticker-free window to the public works director, and the city publishes them on Wasteline, the Environmental Services site.

For fall 2026, Wasteline lists the separate yardwaste season as starting October 26 and ending December 4. The page prints no zones and no leaf weeks. Yardwaste is collected separately on your regular collection day and taken to the Oma-Gro composting facility. The page states there is no quantity limit during the season. The paper bags can weigh up to 40 pounds, and the cart goes to your collection point by 6AM.

Sticker rules change by season. During the season, purchased stickers are not required for paper bags, but bundles of brush still need one. Branches can be up to 2 inches in diameter and 4 feet long, tied with string or natural twine. Outside the season, paper bags or brush bundles outside the cart need a purchased sticker, and every bag or bundle needs its own. Stickers carry the year issued and are good for that year and the following year.

Year round, loose yardwaste in the black lid cart costs nothing, and plastic bags are acceptable only inside that cart. Leaves put in the black lid cart are not composted. Wasteline lists street sweeping sand, whole bags of dirt or sod, cardboard boxes of yardwaste and pet manure as items that do not belong in yardwaste.

Leaves left loose in a street, alley or sidewalk are a separate problem under Omaha's stormwater chapter. Section 32-61 bars leaving yard waste in or on a street, alley, sidewalk or driveway where it can reach the storm sewer, and exempts waste placed in bags, cans or recycling bins.