Calaveras County, CA Trash & Recycling: Yard Waste Collection (2026)

Section 8.12.030 of the Calaveras County Solid Waste Management Ordinance defines "yard waste" as clean vegetative matter such as limbs, brush, slash, grass clippings, leaves, branches, bushes, pine needles and similar organic materials. Once yard waste is comingled with other types of solid waste, the code treats the whole mix as ordinary solid waste subject to the chapter's storage and removal rules.

Normally, Section 8.12.260.A makes it unlawful to collect, haul or transport solid waste for compensation or hire on any county road without a solid waste hauling permit from the department of public works. Subsection B carves out several exemptions from that permit requirement, and yard waste is one of them: persons hauling yard waste are exempt outright, alongside residents hauling their own household waste, agricultural or commercial operators hauling waste from their own operations, and public agencies hauling their own waste.

Because clean yard waste keeps its exemption only while it stays clean, mixing brush or grass clippings with household trash, construction debris or other solid waste converts the load back into regulated solid waste, which then falls under the seven-day removal limit in Section 8.12.120 and the vector-resistant storage standard in Section 8.12.070. A person hauling mixed waste without a permit, or otherwise violating the chapter, is subject to the penalties in Section 8.12.570.