St. Louis County, MO Trash & Recycling: Yard Waste Collection (2026)
Key Facts
- Mandate effective date
- January 1, 2008
- First-violation fine (12-month period)
- $300
- Second-violation fine (12-month period)
- $500
- Enforcing agency
- St. Louis County Dept. of Public Health
- General chapter penalty
- Up to $1,000 or 1 year jail
- Excluded materials
- Stumps, root balls, ceremonial waste
Summary
St. Louis County Code Section 607.182 has required every hauler licensed to collect residential municipal waste in the county to also make curbside yard by-product collection available since January 1, 2008. That covers leaves, grass clippings, garden vegetation and tree limbs six inches or less across, plus Christmas trees, and a hauler that skips the service risks a citation from the Department of Public Health.
607.182 - Provision for Collection of Yard By-Products. As of January 1, 2008, each person providing collection services for municipal waste shall make available collection services for yard by-products.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: Code of Ordinances: Supplement 85 | Traffic: Supplement 80).
Full Breakdown
150. 040 defines "Yard By-Product" as source-separated leaves, grass clippings, yard and garden vegetation, tree limbs six inches or less in diameter, and Christmas trees, and it expressly excludes waste from decorative or ceremonial displays along with stumps, roots or shrubs that still have an intact root ball, meaning those go out as bulky waste instead. 183, so refusing to run a yard by-product route can jam up a company's entire county license, not just the yard-waste line of its business. 030 lets any city in the county with under 75,000 residents pass its own waste ordinance as long as it does not conflict with Chapter 607, so a number of the incorporated municipalities inside St.
Louis County run their own yard-waste programs on their own schedules; the county mandate itself binds haulers serving unincorporated St. Louis County and any city that has not adopted a conflicting scheme. 1005, so a backyard compost pile is judged differently than a hauler's curbside pickup obligation.
Violations & Fines
A hauler that fails to make yard by-product collection available is fined $300 for a first violation within a 12-month period and $500 for a second, per the payment schedule in Section 607.950. Under Section 607.940 the Department of Public Health can issue a citation giving the company ten days to pay by mail or appear at the Department's office to plead not guilty; an unresolved citation is referred to the County Counselor for prosecution. Section 607.960 backs the whole chapter with a general penalty of up to $1,000 and up to one year in the St. Louis County Justice Center, and each day a violation continues after written notice is a separate offense.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does St. Louis County pick up yard waste for residents directly?
What counts as "yard by-product" under Section 607.182?
What happens if a hauler ignores the yard-waste requirement?
Do cities inside St. Louis County follow this same yard-waste rule?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in St. Louis County
Compare St. Louis County to another location·View the Missouri trash & recycling overview
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