Pontiac, MI Trash & Recycling: Yard Waste Collection (2026)

Under § 94-1, yard waste is limited by definition to leaves, grass clippings, small plant clippings, and brush measuring two inches or less in diameter and four feet or less in length, so larger branches fall outside the category and into the 'waste matter' the City does not collect. Section 94-26(c) requires the owner, agent, lessee, tenant, or occupant of a house or four-unit-or-less apartment generating yard waste to keep containers of no less than 10 gallons and no more than 35 gallons, of a type approved by the Director of Public Works, in numbers sufficient to store a week's worth on the premises.

Subsection (d) sets the collection mechanics for anyone using the City's curbside yard waste service: only qualifying yard waste that meets the Director's set-out containment, weight, and quantity limits may go out, the filled containers must be at the curb by 7:00 a.m. on the scheduled collection day and not before 7:00 p.m. the night before, and the empty containers must come back off the curb by 7:00 p.m. that same day. Containers must otherwise be kept in a good, safe, clean, and sanitary condition, and between collections they are subject to the same public-view storage rule in § 94-26(g) that governs refuse carts, meaning they generally belong in a garage or an out-of-view rear yard spot rather than sitting at the curb or on the driveway all week.