Wauwatosa, WI Trash & Recycling: Yard Waste Collection (2026)

130, Management of Yard Materials, splits Wauwatosa's yard waste program into two seasons. During curbside collection season, leaves and brush (not grass clippings, root balls, vegetables, stumps, or branches over six inches in diameter) must be kept separate from household garbage and set out according to the published schedule, in resident-supplied reusable containers marked "yard materials" or "yard waste" in letters at least two inches high, or in approved paper yard waste bags; plastic bags are strictly prohibited. A city yard waste cart may hold no more than 200 pounds, and a reusable container or paper bag no more than 50 pounds; brush and branches must be cut to under four feet and tied into bundles under 50 pounds with string or twine, never wire or plastic strapping.

the next morning, the same window that applies to regular refuse carts. During leaf collection season, residents may instead rake leaves into the street gutter for city crews, while brush under six inches must go to the public works yard drop-off center at 11100 W. 070. Outside the curbside season entirely, the drop-off center is the city's only yard waste service. At the drop-off center year round, yard materials must be deposited loose, never in plastic bags, and rocks, metal, garbage or other debris are barred from the yard waste stream.

Grass clippings are excluded from every city collection option and from the drop-off center; residents must mulch-mow and leave clippings on the lawn, compost them, spread them as garden mulch, hire a landscaper, or otherwise manage them without creating a nuisance.