Wake County, NC Trash & Recycling: Yard Waste Collection (2026)

Wake County's Solid Waste Management Division (a unit of Environmental Services) operates the County's disposal-and-recycling backbone. Its services are coordinated through three classes of facilities: (1) South Wake Landfill, the County's primary subtitle-D municipal solid waste landfill; (2) multi-material recycling facilities that consolidate recyclables collected county-wide; and (3) a network of Convenience Centers that operate a residential trash-pass program and accept household trash, standard recyclables, yard waste, and a range of other materials in a single stop. The County publishes an online Drop-off Locator and a downloadable facilities guide (in English and Spanish) so residents can find the closest site and check what each location accepts.

Wake County does NOT run curbside trash, recycling, or yard-waste collection itself. Curbside service in Wake County is provided by the municipality you live in:

• Raleigh — City of Raleigh Solid Waste Services • Cary — Town of Cary Public Works • Apex — Town of Apex Public Works • Garner — Town of Garner Public Works • Holly Springs — Town of Holly Springs Public Works • Wake Forest — Town of Wake Forest Public Works • Fuquay-Varina, Knightdale, Wendell, Zebulon, Morrisville, Rolesville — each town runs its own program or hauler contract

Each municipality's curbside program has its own yard-waste rules: what counts as yard waste, whether brush and limbs must be bundled and to what dimensions, whether bags must be paper or whether kraft paper bags are required, and the day of the week (and season) it is collected. Some Wake County cities pick up yard waste weekly year-round; others collect it on a seasonal or as-needed basis. The County's Convenience Centers and yard-waste drop-off facilities are available as a backstop county-wide regardless of where you live, and they are the primary option for residents of unincorporated Wake County who do not have municipal curbside service.

At the policy layer, Wake County's solid-waste system is governed by the County's 10-Year Solid Waste Management Plan (required of every NC county under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 130A-309.09A as part of the NC Solid Waste Management Act, N.C. Gen. Stat. Chapter 130A, Article 9) and overseen by the NC Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Waste Management. The Division publishes the "Beyond the South Wake Landfill" planning study addressing long-term disposal capacity. Recycling-stream materials accepted at County drop-offs and through municipal curbside cart programs follow North Carolina's standard list (aluminum and steel cans, cardboard, mixed paper, plastic bottles and jugs, glass at selected sites). Yard waste is collected and managed separately so it can be mulched or composted rather than landfilled — North Carolina has had a statewide ban on yard waste in MSW landfills since 1993 (N.C. Gen. Stat. § 130A-309.10(f)).