Worcester, MA Trash & Recycling: Yard Waste Collection (2026)

Section 6(c) of Chapter Four is direct: no person shall dispose of leaves or yard waste with the solid waste collection or in any collection bag placed for collection by the city. That keeps yard debris out of the weekly bag pickup described in Section 3 entirely, meaning a resident cannot rely on the city's curbside solid waste program to get rid of leaves, grass clippings, or brush by bagging it with household trash. Section 6(i) closes an obvious workaround by also barring a resident from dumping leaves or yard waste onto an adjacent property or lot, alongside its parallel ban on dumping solid waste or recycling on a neighbor's land.

Because the ordinance text in this chapter never sets up an alternative curbside brush or leaf program, a resident who wants leaves or brush removed has to arrange it outside Chapter Four's weekly trash and biweekly recycling framework, whether through a private hauler or self-hauling to a transfer station. The commissioner's enforcement authority under Section 7, and the civil-and-criminal enforcement scheme in Section 8, apply to a Section 6(c) violation the same as any other prohibited act in the chapter.