By The Junk Lord · Updated
Start with the grass clippings
Grass clippings are the trick question of yard waste pickup in York County. Most people assume they're the easiest thing in the yard to get rid of. They're also on more of the local no lists than you'd expect.
Clippings are turned away at the county yard waste area. Pennsylvania's legal definition of leaf waste leaves them out on purpose. York Township, Springettsbury and East Manchester all list them as not yard waste, and York City tells residents to put them in regular trash, where they count against the bag limit.[1][2][3][4][5][6]
The easy fix is the first option the county lists: mulch-mow and leave them on the lawn. In Hanover, the borough recycling yard at 139 North Street does take grass.[1][7][8]
The county site and the state leaf rule
YCSWA asks residents to work down a list: compost or mulch at home, then your town's program, then a local mulch processor, then the county's yard waste facility, with curbside trash as a last resort.[1]
What that area does accept: leaves, shrubbery, root balls no wider than 12 inches, and cut trimmings no longer than 6 feet or thicker than 24 inches. Weeds aren't accepted, and a load with other junk mixed in gets diverted to the waste bunker instead of the mulch pile.[1]
Leaves have their own state rule. Under Act 101, larger municipalities have to require residents to keep leaf waste out of the trash unless they compost it, and landfills and waste-to-energy plants can't accept truckloads that are mostly leaves. That's why fall leaf collection is its own program in so many towns.[2]
Town by town
These are the published rules as of October 2026. Dates move year to year, so check your town's page before you drag anything to the curb.
- York City: weekly curbside yard waste on the first trash day of the week, starting in March, in kraft paper bags or the city's yellow yard waste cans. Plastic bags are refused. Brush has to be bundled, each branch under 4 inches thick, bundles no bigger than 3 feet by 1 foot and 40 pounds. The city's page gives two different end dates for the season, so confirm before a late-fall set-out.[6]
- York Township: curbside yard waste one Saturday a month from March through December, none in January or February. Branches up to 6 inches thick and 4 feet long, tied with twine or in kraft bags or an open 32-gallon can, bundles under 50 pounds. The township brush site off Oak Road is open the 1st and 3rd weekends to residents only, takes brush up to 6 feet long, and is off-limits to contractors. Public Works also collects loose leaf piles in the fall.[3][9]
- Springettsbury Township: weekly yard waste from the first week of March to the first week of December, in 4-foot bundles, paper bags, or a 32-gallon can with a township brush sticker. No stumps, produce, dirt or stone. Fall leaf collection runs in three rounds starting October 12, 2026, and leaves have to be on the pavement with no branches or grass mixed in.[4][10]
- Red Lion: the borough picks up branches and limbs once in spring and once in fall. Limbs can be up to 6 inches thick and 4 to 6 feet long, and they must not be bundled. Leave weeds, flowers, leaves and garden scraps out of that pile. Red Lion has no yard waste site of its own and sends residents to the county. Leaf collection for 2026 is projected for October 5 through November 1, with no plastic bags.[11][12][13]
- Windsor Township: no regular curbside yard waste. Residents can use a woody waste drop-off on set Saturdays from 8 to 11 a.m. at the Public Works Building on White Oak Road, photo ID required, 6 feet long and 6 inches thick at most. The 2026 fall curbside woody waste pickup is the week of November 2, with no quantity limit, in pieces no longer than 4 feet and no thicker than 3 inches. Leaves are collected October 12 to December 11.[14][15]
- Hanover: curbside garden waste in May and October on the regular recycling day. Brush and leaves go in closeable bags and sticks get bundled, but bags with rocks, grass, dirt or limbs stay behind. A leaf machine works the curbs from October 1 to December 19, 2026, so rake to the curb and don't bag them.[7][8][16]
What gets yard waste left behind
Across all of those lists, the same few mistakes come up:
- Plastic bags. York City and Red Lion refuse them outright, and most towns want kraft paper, twine or an open can.[6][12]
- Mixed leaf piles. Leaves with limbs or grass in them get skipped in York Township, Springettsbury and Windsor.[9][10][15]
- Stumps. York Township, Springettsbury and Windsor all exclude them from pickup.[3][4][15]
- Wrong length. The allowed bundle length runs from 3 feet in York City to 6 feet at the York Township and Windsor drop-off sites. Measure before you tie.[6][9][15]
When the pile is too big for the program
Town programs are built for a weekend of trimming, not a back corner that's been growing since the last owner. If your pile is bigger than the bundle rules, the pickup isn't due for months, or you don't have a truck for the drop-off, we'll load it and haul it. Leaves, brush, cut limbs, the whole heap.
One thing we don't do: we're not arborists, and we don't cut down standing trees, trim them or grind stumps. Call a certified arborist for that. Once the wood is on the ground, we'll take it from there.