Yard Waste Collection

Yard waste, which has been banned from Illinois landfills since July 1990, is picked up at the curb once a week by Groot Industries and transported to an IEPA-approved composting site.

"User pay" System

A "user pay" system for yard waste has been in effect since the July 1990 landscape waste ban. Each resident pays his proportionate share of this additional cost through the purchase of special yard waste stickers that are required for the yard waste to be collected. Even though curbside pickup and composting of yard waste is an added cost, it is ecologically wise for yard waste to be kept out of the landfills in order to conserve the quickly-disappearing landfill space.

Where to Buy Yard waste Stickers

These are locations where you may purchase yard waste stickers:

  • Caputo's New Farm Produce
  • Dino's Finer Foods
  • Groot Industries
  • Hanover Park Village Hall
  • Jewel Food Store (Carol Stream)
  • Meijer
  • Tony's Finer Foods

Preparing Yard waste for Pickup

  • Grass and small shrubbery clippings, leaves, hedge trimmings, and garden waste may be put out for pickup.
  • Place yard waste in a 35-gallon brown paper yard waste bag available from local grocery stores and other merchants, or place it in a 35-gallon or less metal or rigid plastic container.
  • A yard waste disposal sticker must be affixed to each brown bag, plastic, or metal container left at the curb. The stickers will be removed from the containers by Groot Industries employees as the containers are emptied.
  • Place the containers so the sticker faces the curb. Containers without stickers will not be emptied.
  • You may also contact Groot Industries to obtain a yard waste container decal to further distinguish your yard waste container from your other refuse containers.
  • Containers must be at the curb no later than 7 a.m. on pickup day and no earlier than 5 p.m. on the afternoon preceding the pickup day.
  • Plastic bags or containers other than those specified above are not acceptable and will not be picked up because they jam the composting equipment and do not decompose in compost piles.
  • For information on branch pick up click here.

Leaf Pickup Regulations

Leaf pickup regulations are as follows:

  • The same rules for leaving grass clippings at the curb apply to leaving leaves at the curb.
  • Leaves must be in a 35-gallon brown yard waste bag, a 35-gallon metal container, or a 35-gallon rigid plastic container; and a yard waste disposal sticker must be attached to each bag or container.
  • Leaf pickup for the month of November is FREE! 

Pickup Schedule

Curbside yard waste collection will be provided by Groot Industries once a week, on Fridays. Yard waste collection will resume on April 5, 2024. The final yard waste collection date will be Saturday, November 30, 2024.  A yard waste sticker is required on each bag. 

Illegal Dumping Could Cost You

With separate refuse disposal rates and yard waste disposal fees, some people are tempted to lower their costs by dumping grass clippings or leaves in a vacant lot, along a creek bank, into a drainage swale or in a commercial dumpster.  We have one word of advice about illegal dumping: Don't!

Preserve Our Landfills

We must work together to save our dwindling landfill space and to find ecologically-sound ways to recycle and reuse as much as possible. Illegal dumping is environmentally detrimental, as well as being unfair to those doing their fair share to recycle yard waste. In the interest of the environment and out of fairness to all, those dumping illegally will be prosecuted.