Yard Waste and Brush Removal in Hartford

Start with the rule that surprises people. Connecticut bans grass clippings from solid waste facilities under CGS section 22a-208v. Not discourages, bans. That is one of only two real disposal bans in this state, the other being electronics, and it means clippings do not go in a container, a bag or a cart. They stay on the lawn, go into a compost heap, or go to a composting operation. Everything else in a Hartford garden — brush, branches, hedge trimmings, roots, overgrowth, storm debris — is ordinary material and a container handles it perfectly well, which is why yard waste here is a slightly odd category rather than a simple one.

The city does a good deal itself, on a seasonal calendar, and the calendar is the part that trips people up. Loose autumn leaves are collected kerbside twice, by zone, roughly between early November and late December, with paper leaf bags accepted in the same window. In spring it is brown paper leaf bags only, on normal trash days across three weeks in April, with no loose-leaf collection at all. In summer, brown leaf bags go out on normal trash days in the last week of June, July, August and September, and tied branch bundles the same weeks. Branches are taken year-round in tied bundles up to six feet, limited to three bundles outside the collection periods. The city's published dates move each year, so check before you rake.

And then the sentence that gets more Hartford leaves left at the kerb than any other: leaves placed in plastic garbage bags will not be collected. Brown paper leaf bags or loose in the collection window, nothing else. If you would rather not wait for a zone date, the city runs a free green permit for yard waste drop-off, issued at DPW on Jennings Road, with the material taken to the Bulky Waste and Recycling Center at 180 Leibert Road, Tuesday to Saturday, 8:45 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. Where a container earns its place is the jobs that are too big or too fast for any of that: a lot cleared, a storm, a hedge line taken out, or a landlord turning over a rear yard between tenants.

Garden And Grounds Work A Container Suits

Sizing A Yard Waste Container

Brush and branch material is bulky rather than dense, which means a yard waste container usually fills up rather than weighs out — the opposite of a masonry job. A 10 yard suits a modest hedge removal, a single tree pruning or a small rear yard tidied up. A 15 yard is the common size for a full lot clear-down behind a multifamily, or a storm's worth of limb debris off one property. A 20 yard covers a large clearance, several properties on the same visit, or a job where whole trunk sections and root balls are going in. Two things change the arithmetic. Root balls and stumps carry soil and are far heavier than the brush around them, so they go flat on the floor of the box. And anything rained on gains weight, so keep the tarp on between sessions. Cutting brush down rather than loading it whole is the single biggest difference between one container and two.

Grass Clippings, Leaves And Hartford's Calendar

Two rules bound this work. Grass clippings are banned from solid waste facilities under CGS section 22a-208v, so they never go in a container; leave them on the lawn or compost them. And Hartford's own leaf collection carries a rule the city states plainly: leaves placed in plastic garbage bags will not be collected. Brown paper leaf bags or loose, nothing else. The city's calendar runs roughly like this. Loose leaves kerbside twice by zone between roughly early November and late December, with paper bags accepted in the same window. Spring is paper bags only, on normal trash days over three weeks in April, with no loose collection. Summer is paper bags on normal trash days in the last week of June, July, August and September, with tied branch bundles the same weeks. Branches year-round in tied bundles up to six feet, three bundles outside collection periods. Published dates move each year, so check with DPW. There is also a free green permit for yard waste drop-off, issued at DPW on Jennings Road, with the material going to 180 Leibert Road, Tuesday to Saturday, 8:45 a.m. to 1:45 p.m.