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Yard Waste
If your leaves and other yard waste are frozen inside your can, your can will be skipped. We strongly recommend the use of brown paper leaf bags from November onward.
Yard waste collection for the 2025 season is complete. Christmas trees will be collected on Friday, 1/9 and Friday, 1/16. Christmas trees (or other holiday greenery) must be completely free of decoration, including lights, wire, garland, or twine.
The City of Ypsilanti collects residential yard waste curbside. Yard waste consists of grass clippings, leaves, garden material, and bundled or contained branches that are not to exceed four (4) inches in diameter, or four (4) feet in length. We cannot accept certain invasive plants in our yard waste collection.
Yard waste will be picked up on your recycling day. Curbside services typically begin the early April and continue through mid November. Yard waste pickup is every-other-week until leaf season. Check your schedule here.
In 2026, yard waste services will resume the week of April 6, and conclude the week of November 23 (Thanksgiving). Service will be every other week, except during the peak period of leaf season, which will be announced when it begins. To sign up for City announcements, please visit https://cityofypsilanti.com/list.aspx.
Please place at curb no later than 6 a.m. on your recycling pickup day or the evening before.
How do I prepare yard waste for pick-up?
- Place in a labelled trash can with handles (preferably 32-gallon or smaller), or in brown paper compost bags.
- In colder weather, particularly from mid-October onwards, we highly recommend using brown paper yard waste bags, as yard waste may freeze to the container and be impossible to pick up when temperatures drop. Yard waste that is frozen inside cans cannot be collected.
- Stickers for reusable containers may be obtained at City Hall at no charge.
- For the months of September and October 2025, due to the switch from cans to carts for trash, we are offering residents the ability to request a sticker by mail. Please fill out the online form here.
- We will not accept the collapsible, flexible, reusable bins and bags for yard waste; they are difficult to empty and have a tendency to blow away.
- Bags or cans must weigh less than 50 pounds total (including the weight of the can).
- Note: grass clippings can be very heavy, especially when wet! We encourage mulching grass clippings.
- Place bags &/or cans approximately six feet from trash.
- Must not contain rubbish, dirt, sod, stones, planters, plastic bags, invasive species, or recyclables.
- The presence of dirt, rubbish, sod, or other non-compostable material will slow down the process of composting (as it will absorb heat, rather than generate it). This will also lower the quality of the finished compost that is freely available to residents.
Invasive species are weedy, fast-spreading species that are generally damaging to the local ecosystem. Many common invasive plant species can survive the levels of heat generated in local composting operations, and be spread in the finished compost that is freely available to residents- thus spreading the invasive species more widely. Common invasive plant species in Ypsilanti include:
Where does it go?
The City manages a small yard waste compost yard off of Catherine Street. This yard is not open to the public and we do not accept drop-offs from the public; the site is monitored for illegal dumping.
As compost is finished and as wood chips are made, the City sets out both in a small area at the northeast corner of Spring and Catherine. Members of the public are welcome to take and use these materials within the City. If you are interested in a significant amount of chips or compost (more than three cubic yards) for your project, please contact us directly.