Loose-leaf piles on Raleigh curbs are on their way out. Raleigh City Council has voted to scrap the long-running seasonal loose-leaf pickup and replace it with year-round weekly yard-waste collection, a shift scheduled to roll out in Fall 2026. Instead of pushing leaves into towering curbside mounds, residents will load up their green yard-waste carts and biodegradable paper bags, with the city allowing at least 15 bags alongside the carts at the curb. City officials say the move to a weekly schedule - effectively 52 pickups instead of 26 - is meant to keep storm drains clearer, bike lanes safer and the collection calendar a lot more predictable for a fast-growing city.
City of Raleigh officials laid out the timeline and rules in an announcement and supporting materials. The release explains that weekly yard-waste pickups will replace two final loose-leaf sweeps and give residents 26 additional collection days each year. The city also pushed the plan out on its official account on X on April 14, 2026.
What Residents Will See
Once the enhanced service kicks in, crews will pick up one 95-gallon yard-waste cart plus roughly 15 to 20 biodegradable bags per week, and residents will be able to request a second cart for a modest fee. A detailed equipment and staffing breakdown in a presentation to Council, available on BoardDocs, notes that the city will need five additional rear-load refuse trucks and about 15 new crew members to make weekly collection work. Staff told Council they planned to order those trucks with an 18-month lead time to keep the program on track for a fall 2026 launch.
Why The City Is Shifting
According to city staff, the loose-leaf model that has been in place since 2011 has become increasingly difficult to manage as Raleigh has grown, creating timing gaps that leave leaves sitting in streets and clogging storm drains. Moving the service from the Transportation department to Solid Waste Services is also intended to free Transportation crews to concentrate on sidewalks, pavement and stormwater maintenance, the city says. “We hope this expanded service will eliminate a lot of the issues we’ve seen with loose leaf collection,” Assistant City Manager Michael Moore said in the city’s release.
Timeline And Budget
The staff presentation estimates the enhanced yard-waste program will require about $1.75 million per year to fully fund, with roughly $725,000 needed in fiscal 2027 to cover startup costs. Staff propose using savings from the old loose-leaf program and folding the rest of the expense into the FY2027 budget process to keep any new burden on taxpayers as small as possible. Documents provided to Council on BoardDocs show a plan to order equipment this summer and kick off a public information campaign in fall 2025, giving residents a full year to get used to the new routine.
How To Prepare
The city says it will still run two final loose-leaf sweeps - one this fall and another at the start of 2026 - before weekly yard-waste pickup officially takes over. In the meantime, residents are encouraged to “bag it” with biodegradable paper bags, “rake it” into small piles that do not block sidewalks or driveways, or “leave it” to mulch in place, as local coverage has explained. As reported by WRAL, residents can also look up collection days through the Raleigh Reuse tool and call Solid Waste Services at (919) 996-3245 with questions.
The new program is scheduled to roll out alongside the FY2027 budget process, and officials note that the exact start date will depend on equipment delivery and budget approval. For questions about implementation or service, the city’s materials list Solid Waste Services Interim Director Gregory Jenkins as the contact at [email protected].
