Field notes / Fort Collins
Yard waste in Fort Collins: the cart, the cheap gate and the hauler
A trailer of branches and a trailer of broken furniture cost different money at the same county gate. Keeping the green pile separate is the one decision that changes the bill, and in Fort Collins it also decides which months anything is collected at all.
The cart that is already on the bill
Inside city limits the City contracts curbside trash, recycling and yard trimmings for single-family homes and buildings of seven or fewer units, with Republic Services running the routes. Its curbside page, retrieved October 4, 2026, puts seasonal weekly trimmings collection in every service level: one cart of 65 or 95 gallons, emptied weekly between April 1 and November 30. A household that does not want the service can decline it and take $5 a month off the bill, except on the extra-small cart.
What may go in is narrower than most people assume. The City names leaves, lawn clippings, garden waste, untreated wood and twigs, plus small branches under 3 inches in diameter that still let the lid shut. Everything sits loose, and a cart whose lid will not close is left at the curb. Bags are refused, paper ones included, because the composting facility cannot process them; so are food scraps, which the City explains have no regional composting infrastructure yet, along with treated wood, plastics and metal.
The destination explains the fuss over a clean cart. Trimmings collected this way go to a composting facility instead of a landfill, which is why the City draws the line at anything that facility cannot process.
When the pile outgrows the cart
Two paid options sit next to the free one, both booked through Republic rather than the City. A second trimmings cart is $15 a month. A bulk pickup of bagged material is $4 for each 32-gallon bag, and here the City adds a line worth reading twice: those bagged pickups go to the landfill, not to compost.
Then there is the season. Nothing is collected between November 30 and April 1, while bulk pickups continue through the winter. A December hedge cut or a March clean-up has to leave another way, which is where the county gate, the recycling center and a hauler come in.
The county gate is the cheap one, if the load is clean
Larimer County prices plant material well below mixed junk. Its 2026 fee schedule, updated June 29, 2026, sets a $9 flat fee for a car, SUV or passenger van of green waste and $16 for a pickup or cargo van, where the same vehicles pay $20 and $37 carrying ordinary waste. Green waste in a trailer is $13 per cubic yard for loads under 1,000 pounds a cubic yard, with no state surcharge, against $13.25 plus surcharge for the same volume of loose mixed waste. The county’s solid waste FAQ states the program plainly: branches and yard waste are accepted through the Green Waste Program as an alternative to disposal.
| What you drive in | Ordinary waste | Clean green waste |
|---|---|---|
| Car, SUV or passenger van | $20 flat | $9 flat |
| Pickup truck or cargo van | $37 flat | $16 flat |
| Loose load in a trailer | $13.25 per cubic yard + surcharge | $13 per cubic yard |
| Tree trunk thicker than 2 feet | $40 per cubic yard as rubble | Not accepted as green waste |
The Green Waste Program page sets the shape of an acceptable load: tree branches, limbs and trimmings, brush, grass and leaves, garden waste or plant clippings, clean pallets, and tree trunks cut to 6 feet in length and 2 feet in diameter or smaller. Refused are bags, containers, fiberboard, food waste, metal, painted wood, plastic, plywood, root balls, soil, trash, treated wood and any trunk fatter than 2 feet. What the county accepts is ground up and used on site to add nutrients to soil and prevent erosion. Its A to Z list repeats the limit for wood and tree limbs and notes that dimensional lumber and pallets are fine.
Two further numbers settle a borderline load. A trunk over that diameter is billed as rubble at $40 per cubic yard, and volumes are rounded to whole cubic yards, so 1.49 yards counts as one and 1.5 counts as two. The cover rule does not soften for branches either: an unsecured load pays double.
Which entrance takes it, after August
This is the part to confirm before loading anything. The county’s solid waste page says the landfill closed on August 3, 2026 and lists what stayed behind at the Taft Hill Road entrance: commercial recycling haulers, household hazardous waste, electronics recycling, the education center and the solid waste business office. Green waste is not among them.
Meanwhile the fee schedule prices green waste at the Central Transfer Station from July 1, 2026, the Green Waste Program page still describes the landfill site, and the City’s A to Z entry for branches still gives the county program’s address as 5887 S. Taft Hill Road. The fee is settled; the gate, on paper, is not. Ask the county’s solid waste office which entrance is taking green loads this week, and drive once instead of twice.
Small loads: Timberline, by the cubic yard
For a car full of leaves or one afternoon of pruning, the City’s own yard is closer than the county. At the Timberline Recycling Center on South Timberline Road, the Hard-to-Recycle Materials Yard charges a $5 entry fee and then prices plant material by volume: leaves at $11 a cubic yard, grass clippings at $11, branches under 2 inches in diameter at $11 and branches thicker than that at $9. Untreated, unpainted lumber and scrap wood without plywood or composite board are $11 a cubic yard on the same visit.
The City adds its own advice about size: for loads over three cubic yards, use another drop-off. That yard is open Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from April to October and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. from November to March, so a Sunday clean-up has nowhere to unload until Tuesday.
The City’s own list of places that take branches
The A to Z entry is useful because it gives more than the two public gates. Besides Timberline and the county program, it names A1 Organics in Eaton, Ewing Landscape Materials on East Prospect, the Loveland Recycling Center on North Wilson Avenue, and Colorado Tree & Firewood Company on West County Road 60, which takes logs between 5 and 24 inches in diameter, refuses small branches, chipped wood and plywood, and asks for an appointment first.
One rule runs through the whole list. Treated or painted wood is not accepted at any of them, and fees differ from place to place, so the City tells readers to contact a location about what it can take before setting out. An old fence, a deck or a painted pergola is construction debris rather than yard waste, and the remodel debris guide covers where that goes.
Burning it is not the shortcut
People new to the county often assume a brush pile can simply be burned. Larimer County’s burn permit page says most outdoor burning needs a permit from both the local fire department and the county health department, and that only slash may go on the pile: woody material, branches, limbs and stems under six inches in diameter, free of dirt.
Yard and garden waste from routine clean-ups is on the prohibited list, together with household garbage, furniture, tree stumps, wood pallets, treated wood, tires and construction debris. Permits are usually capped at 50 slash piles a year. The county’s own suggestion is to mulch, reuse or recycle first, and it points at the Green Waste Program as the alternative.
What it means when a hauler quotes the job
A hauler pays the same gate fees as anyone else, which is why the sorting is worth money. A pickup load of clean branches costs $16 at the county gate; mix the same branches in with a broken dresser and a bag of trash and the ticket is $37. Stack the green pile separately in the driveway and say so when you describe the job.
Three things move the labor rather than the gate fee. Access, because a backyard reached only through a side gate is carried out by hand. Weight, since leaves and grass hold water and the same volume is heavier to move after rain or snow. And stumps, because root balls and soil are refused as green waste, which turns a stump into a rubble load priced by the cubic yard.
Worth asking before you agree a price: which gate the load is going to, whether the quote includes the green waste fee or the rubble rate, and whether the company holds the City hauler license that Fort Collins requires of anyone collecting trash, recycling or compost inside city limits. The pricing guide keeps the public fees and the private planning ranges in separate tables.
A yard-waste year, in order
- April 1. The trimmings cart starts again. Keep it loose, keep the lid shut, and leave the bags for the recycling bin.
- Summer. Prunings thicker than 3 inches miss the cart; collect them in one corner for a single run to the county or to Timberline.
- October. Leaf fall is when the extra cart at $15 a month is worth weighing against the drop-off trips it saves.
- December to March. No cart, so a tarped trailer to the county gate, or a hauler, is the plan for storm limbs and winter clear-outs.
Official sources
- City of Fort Collins curbside trash and recycling: yard trimmings season, carts, accepted items and bulk pickups.
- Timberline Recycling Center: entry fee, yard trimmings and wood waste rates, hours.
- City A to Z guide: branches: the full list of drop-offs and their limits.
- Larimer County Green Waste Program: accepted and refused material, trunk size limit.
- 2026 Larimer County solid waste fee schedule (PDF, updated June 29, 2026).
- County solid waste FAQ and A to Z disposal list.
- Larimer County Solid Waste: the August 3, 2026 closure and what stayed on Taft Hill Road.
- Larimer County burn permits: slash, prohibited materials and the pile limit.
- City hauler license.
All sources checked October 4, 2026. Fees, seasons and facility rules change; confirm with the facility before a trip.
Before you decide
Questions worth asking
When does Fort Collins collect yard trimmings?
Weekly from April 1 to November 30 for households on the City’s contracted service, in one 65 or 95-gallon cart. Nothing is collected between November 30 and April 1, though bagged bulk pickups continue at $4 per 32-gallon bag.
Is it cheaper to take branches to the county than mixed junk?
Yes, on the 2026 county schedule. Green waste is $9 for a car and $16 for a pickup, against $20 and $37 for ordinary waste, provided the load holds nothing but clean plant material, clean pallets or untreated wood.
Can I burn a brush pile instead of hauling it?
Not for a routine clean-up. Larimer County lists yard and garden waste from routine clean-ups among materials that may not be burned, and most outdoor burning needs permits from both the local fire department and the county health department.
Will the trimmings cart take a 4-inch branch?
No. The City’s limit is branches under 3 inches in diameter that still let the cart lid close. Thicker wood goes to Timberline, to the county’s green waste gate, or out with a hauler.