Putnam County, FL Trash & Recycling: Yard Waste Collection (2026)

Yard waste collection in unincorporated Putnam County turns on the size definition in Sec. 34-1 and the roadside placement rule in Sec. 34-36. Horticultural trash covers lawn, grass, or shrubbery cuttings and clippings, dry leaf rakings, palm fronds, small tree branches, bushes, shrubs, green leaf cuttings, and fruit, but small tree branches only qualify if they do not exceed four feet in length and four inches in diameter. The definition specifically excludes large branches, trees, or bulky or noncontainerized material that regular loader packer-type sanitation equipment cannot handle during normal residential collection runs, meaning oversized yard debris does not go out with the routine horticultural trash pickup.

Sec. 34-36 repeats the same four-foot, four-inch limit for limbs from tree trimmings and requires that they be placed at the roadside for pickup, giving residents a bright-line size test for what the county's regular collection crew will take. Because horticultural trash is treated as part of the general solid waste stream defined in Sec. 34-1, it moves through the same mandatory residential collection service established in Sec. 34-34 for improved residential property in the unincorporated county, funded through the special assessments, fees, or service charges the board levies for that service.

Residents with debris that exceeds the four-foot or four-inch thresholds, such as whole trees or large limbs from storm damage, fall outside this routine pickup and need a different disposal arrangement, since the code treats that oversized material as outside normal loader-packer collection.