Portage County, WI Trash & Recycling: Yard Waste Collection (2026)

Yard waste is defined at § 4.7.7(27) as material under Wis. Stat. § 287.01(17), 'including leaves, grass clippings, yard and garden debris and brush, including clean woody vegetative material no greater than six inches in diameter,' excluding invasive species, stumps, roots or shrubs with intact root balls. Section 4.7.10's Disposal Prohibitions bar depositing yard waste at the county transfer facility unless the Solid Waste Management Board or the Wisconsin DNR grants an exemption, and § 4.8.2 lists yard waste among the materials that single-family homes, multi-family buildings of five or more units, and nonresidential properties must separate from postconsumer waste and deliver to a facility capable of handling it.

Section 4.7.21, Permitted Actions for Disposal, allows a narrower private-land option: un-bagged yard waste may be dumped or buried on private land only with the landowner's prior permission, and a landowner may dump, bury or dispose of yard waste on their own land as long as it is not hazardous waste under Wis. Stat. ch. 289. Burning is separately restricted: § 4.8.8 prohibits burning yard waste once it has been set aside as a recyclable material, alongside items like tires and plastics. Multi-family owners who don't route waste through a DNR-licensed processing facility must also provide separate yard-waste containers under § 4.8.3, sized so the recycling container volume equals or exceeds the trash container volume.