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1. How do I sign up for yard waste service?

You can find the forms you need on our website.

2. How much does it cost to sign up for yard waste service?

The fee is currently $90 per year. If you are a City water customer, it is charged monthly at $7.50 per month. Well water customers are billed $90 at the beginning of the fiscal year. This includes leasing the cart and receiving the curbside collection service. Additional carts are also available for $1.50 per month, or $18 per year. When residents sign up, it is for the full fiscal year (July 1 - June 30). 

Yard waste customers are also entitled to two free bulky brush pickups (scoops) per year ($40 value), and generally get preference with Christmas tree collection. 

3. How do I find my collection day?

Use our convenient ReCollect tool online and/or the Durham Rollout app for Apple or Android to keep track of your collection days. You can sign up for reminders and service alerts, view and print a calendar, look up how to dispose of a particular item, request a bulky item pickup, and even play a waste sorting game to test your knowledge! 

Note that weekly yard waste service is not guaranteed as weather and other circumstances beyond our control can affect our ability to perform collections in any given week. We will work with you to get all of your yard waste collected though.

4. Why does Durham charge for yard waste service?

Solid Waste serves about 80,000 households city-wide. About 22,000 of those households choose to have yard waste service. Many areas of the City don't have much tree coverage or need for yard waste services so this program is optional. Providing carts and yard waste service to every household city-wide would require a significant investment in more trucks, drivers and collectors and would be wasteful. This program is optional and self-sustaining, providing services as efficiently as possible. 

5. Why was my yard waste collection missed today?

There are a number of reasons that we might not be able to complete a collection. If you met all of the requirements below and we missed you, please report a missed collection and we will attempt to make it up before your next collection day. The best way to know for sure if to sign up for our convenient service alerts: Find Your Collection Day / Holiday Schedule / Calendar | Durham, NC (durhamnc.gov). Please note that refunds or credits are not given for missed collections. 

1. Be sure your cart is at the curb no later than 6 am on your collection day. Best to put it out the night before.
2. The cart must not be obstructed. It must be a safe distance (generally 3 feet is good) from other carts, parked cars, mailboxes, fences, utlility poles, and any other property that could be damaged by a mechanical arm during collection.
3. Your street must be accessible. Road closures are generally rare but do happen for water main breaks, street maintenance, etc.
4. If this is a holiday week, collections are usually pushed back one business day (Friday customers moved to the following Monday). You can sign up for collection reminders or use the Durham Rollout app to have access to your address' collection schedule.
5. Sometimes we have personnel and / or vehicle issues that prevent us from completing routes. If you sign up for service alerts, we notify you when this happens on your route. 

6. Why doesn't Durham do leaf collections on streets?

The Department of Public Works runs street sweepers to keep streets clean and items out of the storm drains that should not be there. However, to provide full leaf collection city-wide would require more specialized equipment that is very expensive to not only purchase, but to maintain. Those machines suck up everything and have been known to pull in small animals as well. Much of the detritius under the leaves can damage the machine. Most cities that have decided to use this method of leaf collection now regret it. 

7. What happens to yard waste?

Our collection trucks deliver yard waste to our yard waste facility on E Club Blvd, where it is ground up on site and composted by Atlas Organics with biosolids from the North Durham Water Reclamation Facility. This compost is sold commercially, so you can feel good that your yard waste is being used to improve soil.