Waterloo, IA Trash & Recycling: Yard Waste Collection (2026)

City Code § 4-3-1 defines yard waste as vegetative wastes from residential yard, flowerbed and garden care, including grass clippings, leaves, tree limbs, bark, garden waste, brush and small twigs and branches not exceeding two and one half inches in diameter or three and one half feet in length; anything larger, tree stumps, roots and trunks, and inorganic materials like metal, plastic, rock, dirt, wire, fencing or masonry are all excluded from the definition. Customers who sign up for the voluntary yard waste program pay a fixed monthly charge under § 4-3-6(A)(2) and receive collection of a standard container on the ordinary schedule.

That schedule runs from mid-April through November each year for at least eighteen scheduled weeks; the code sets no routine collection between December and March unless weather and staffing levels allow it. Under § 4-3-5(F), yard waste must be kept separated from garbage, refuse and recycling and placed only in a container the city provides for that purpose; using any other container means the material will not be collected. Containers must sit at ground level within three feet of the curb or alley line, clear of locked gates, parked vehicles or loose yard tools, or the collection crew will skip the address, per § 4-3-5(E).

Multiple dwellings and businesses cannot use curbside yard waste pickup at all under § 4-3-4(D); their occupants must instead haul yard waste to a city drop-off site.