Rhode Island leaf and yard waste pickup rules by town: curbside schedules, drop-off fees, and a fall calendar

The short version: Rhode Island does not use one leaf rule. Of the 39 cities and towns, 23 publish curbside yard-waste pickup, 14 publish a drop-off and not curbside pickup, Foster publishes no local collection, and Narragansett has not published a yard-waste rule on the pages checked October 30, 2026 (counted from the town table below; each row links to its RIRRC town page or the city's own page). At Resource Recovery, leaf and yard debris is $40 per ton with a $30 minimum on the fee schedule effective July 1, 2026. The schedule effective November 1, 2026 keeps that rate and adds a $3 per ton fuel surcharge on commercial loads (RIRRC accepted materials and pricing). Providence picks up weekly from April 20 through December 24, 2026. Pawtucket runs through December 11, 2026. Where a 2026 date is not printed, this guide says not published.

RIRRC's town pages say the details are supplied by each city or town and checked quarterly. Call the department listed for your town before you put a pile at the curb. The Rhode Island lawn care cost guide is the place to compare a crew if the town will not take the leaves. The frost-date calendar is the place to see when a hard freeze usually arrives. The Fall Yard Work Index ranks towns by canopy and yards, not by pickup rules.

1. How Rhode Island towns handle leaves

Source: My Green Robot count of the 39 rows in data/yard-waste/ri-yard-waste-by-town.csv, each transcribed on October 30, 2026 from the town page linked in that row.

A town is counted as curbside when its page publishes a curbside pickup, even if residents can also drop leaves off. Portsmouth is in the curbside count because its own July 2026–June 2027 calendar marks yard-waste days. RIRRC's Portsmouth page describes drop-off and does not list those curbside dates. Foster is the one town with no local collection. Narragansett is the one town whose yard-waste rule is not published.

How the 39 cities and towns split

Source: same town pages as the chart. The 23, 14, 1, and 1 are a count of those pages, not a figure RIRRC publishes.

Source: the same four categories, from data/yard-waste/ri-yard-waste-by-town.csv. The tiles are in alphabetical order. They are not a map.

2. Leaf and yard waste rules by city and town

The table is the standing rule on each RIRRC town page unless a 2026 city or town page is named. "Not stated" means the page describes the season and does not print a year. "Not published" means the page does not give that detail.

Rhode Island leaf and yard waste rules by city and town, checked October 30, 2026

Sources: the RIRRC page for every town at https://rirrc.org/towns/ plus the town slug, and the city and town pages named in the rows. The full URL list is at the end. RIRRC's disclaimer, printed on the town pages, says the information is supplied by the city or town, that RIRRC asks to be updated when it changes, and that RIRRC verifies it quarterly.

Four rows need a second reading, because the pages do not agree with each other or with a quick summary.

Portsmouth. RIRRC describes drop-off from March 15 through December 31 and Christmas-tree pickup at the curb in January. The town's own curbside calendar, covering July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, marks yard-waste days in yellow, including December 1–4, 2026. This guide counts Portsmouth as curbside because the town published that calendar. The drop-off rules on the RIRRC page are still the published drop-off rules.

Hopkinton and Richmond. RIRRC's Hopkinton page is one sentence: residents can get a permit for Richmond's transfer station. Richmond's page says that permit is free and that leaf, yard waste, and brush are $110 per ton. Hopkinton's own brochure, with hours "as of 2/1/26," says brush is about 5.5 cents per pound. That is $110 per ton if you multiply 5.5 cents by 2,000, which matches Richmond's ton rate. The hours do not match. The brochure says Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday until 3:45 pm, and Wednesday until 6 pm during daylight saving time. RIRRC says 8 am to 4 pm, with the gate closing at 3:45. Use the brochure for the February 1, 2026 hours and call 401-491-9505 if you are going that week.

Woonsocket. The Blackstone, Massachusetts drop-off is on the RIRRC page, not a typo in a search snippet. It is on Mill Street, off River Street, on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 8 am to 2:30 pm, for weeks when the city is not collecting at the curb. The sticker is $25. The 2026 city calendar repeats the address in the legend, sets the season as April 11 through December 9, 2026, and calls the sticker green for 2026. The curbside weeks are colored on that calendar. The last curbside day is not printed as text, so it is not stated here.

Cranston and Johnston. Cranston's yard-waste page says April 6 until mid-December 2026. RIRRC still says April 1 to December 15. A city page titled "The Last Week For Yard Waste Pick-Up Is The Week Of December 19th-23rd" does not print a year in that heading, and the article body did not include a second sentence in the copy checked. Johnston's RIRRC page confirms free curbside pickup in paper bags or a barrel, with brush in 4-foot bundles, and Christmas trees from December 26 through January 15. It does not publish a yard-waste permit. The town does publish a separate Central Landfill pass for household waste, once a month, for owner-occupants (Johnston landfill pass). That pass is not a leaf sticker.

Source: the bag column in data/yard-waste/ri-yard-waste-by-town.csv. "Bags only" means the row names paper, compostable, biodegradable, or leaf bags and does not also name a barrel, can, or box. That group includes Tiverton's biodegradable bags and Hopkinton's lawn and leaf bags. "Bags plus a barrel, can, or box" is 16 towns. Portsmouth is in that 16 because of its drop-off rule. Its curbside bag rule is not published. The other three published wordings are Glocester (leaves, pine needles, and grass, with no container named), Jamestown (empty the bags, type not named), and Scituate (no plastic bags, container not named). Eleven towns, including Foster, do not publish a container.

3. What it costs to drop leaves off

Source: town pages linked in the table below. Where a town published a price per pound, the bar is that price times 2,000. Hopkinton's brochure says "about 5.5 cents per pound." Bag prices are not on the chart, because no bag weight is published. The dashed line is Resource Recovery's leaf and yard rate.

Published drop-off prices for leaves, grass, or brush

Sources: RIRRC FY27 fee schedule effective July 1, 2026; the same corporation's schedule effective November 1, 2026; and the town pages in the big table. Calculated per-ton figures are the published per-pound price times 2,000. They are not a second price on the town page.

The November 1, 2026 schedule does not change the $40 leaf and yard rate. Footnote 7 on that schedule adds a $3 per ton fuel surcharge on the commercial loads it marks, and the leaf and yard line is one of those lines. The July 1, 2026 schedule, which is the one in effect on the date of this article, does not have that surcharge.

Many other towns charge nothing extra for leaves once you have the transfer-station sticker. Those sticker prices are in the big table. They are the price of entering the station, not a separate leaf price, unless the row says otherwise.

4. Official rules for leaves, bags, and burning

Source: the drawing shows paper bags, a barrel, and a tied bundle, which is the combination named by towns such as Providence, Cranston, and Johnston. It does not print a length. Branch limits differ by town and are in the table above.

Paper bags, a marked barrel, and a tied bundle are the containers the town pages actually name. There is no single statewide length. Resource Recovery's own rule, for loads brought to Johnston, is branches under 3 inches, loose or in paper bags (Materials Acceptance Criteria). Providence, Cranston, and East Providence each say brush bundles of about 4 feet. The drawing does not print a length, because the towns do not all use the same one.

Resource Recovery accepts brush and branches less than 3 inches in diameter, leaves, twigs, and grass clippings as leaf and yard debris. The load has to arrive loose or in paper leaf and lawn bags. Loads that arrive in plastic bags, and are not emptied, are charged as solid waste. Litter and listed invasive plants are charged as solid waste. Stumps and wood over 3 inches are charged as stumps, not as leaves. The acceptance sheet was last updated May 14, 2026 (Materials Acceptance Criteria).

Operating hours for bringing materials are Monday through Friday, 6:00 am to 3:45 pm, and Saturday, 6:00 am to 12:00 pm, except holidays. The Central Landfill is at the west entrance, 65 Shun Pike, Johnston. The administration building is at 34 Shun Pike. The east entrance, 3 Shun Pike, is the small-vehicle transfer station and the residential recycling area (location and hours). RIRRC also says more than half of the state's leaf and yard debris comes to Resource Recovery (leaf and yard debris). That is the corporation's description, not a tonnage table.

Burning the pile is not a statewide free-for-all. State law says it is the policy of the state to eliminate open fires to the maximum extent possible, and that cities and towns may prohibit them by ordinance (R.I. Gen. Laws § 23-23-18). A state press release says residents who want to burn brush and yard debris outdoors must get a permit from local fire officials, and that open burning is banned in some communities and limited in others (RI.gov). The state open-fire rule prohibits open burning at a solid-waste or hazardous-waste facility, and open burning tied to salvage, industrial, commercial, or institutional work (250-RICR-120-05-4). Local ordinances are stricter than that in some towns. Tiverton allows open burning of yard waste, brush, grass, and leaves only with a written fire-department permit, issues no permits from May 1 through September 30, and limits a property to six permits a year (Tiverton burning ordinance). North Smithfield prohibits open burning except by permit, and it does not issue those permits from May 1 through the day before the observed Columbus Day (North Smithfield open burning ordinance). Johnston's code chapter on this point did not load during this check, so it is not quoted.

5. Month-by-month fall yard-waste guide

The first fall freeze is a different question from the last pickup day. Use the frost-date guide for the station nearest your town. Use this table for the bags.

Fall yard-waste timing

Each row's source is in the last column. A date with no year on the town page is not given a year here.

Source: rows in data/yard-waste/ri-yard-waste-by-town.csv that name a December day in 2026. Newport's point is the shaded week of December 7–11. Tiverton's point is the week of December 14, not a claim that December 14 is the only collection day that week. Woonsocket's point is the Blackstone drop-off through December 9, not a last curbside day. Cranston and Warwick are left off because neither page names one December day.

Last leaf and yard pickup dates a town published for 2026

Sources are in the last column. Towns left off this list did not publish a 2026 end date that could be read as text or as a marked day on the calendar checked.

Warren's standing rule ends December 1, with no year on the RIRRC page, so it is not in the 2026 list. Smithfield ends the first week of December, also with no year. West Warwick's 2026 PDF says the weeks are highlighted and does not print the last date.

Source: the Christmas tree column in data/yard-waste/ri-yard-waste-by-town.csv. A row is "curbside" only when that word appears and the row does not also offer drop-off. Cumberland says drop-off only and "not curbside," so it is in the drop-off bar. Middletown, Newport, North Kingstown, and Westerly name a January window without the words curbside or drop-off, so they are the four "place not named" towns. Foster, Hopkinton, Narragansett, and Scituate do not publish a tree rule.

6. Free ways to get rid of leaves

Source: RIRRC leaf and yard composting and UConn leaf mulch mowing. The drawing has no numbers. The measured nitrogen return is in the list below.

Source: RIRRC leaf and yard composting. Ten feet of chicken wire holds 16 bags of shredded leaves. That count is in the list below, not printed on the drawing.

1. Mulch them into the lawn. RIRRC says you can mow leaves back onto the soil with a mulching mower, or with the bag removed, and put shredded leaves on beds (leaf and yard composting). UConn found that mulching a 2-inch layer of leaves into the lawn over the fall added about 150 pounds of nitrogen, 20 pounds of phosphorus, and 65 pounds of potassium per acre, which it also states as about 3.44, 0.46, and 1.49 pounds per 1,000 square feet (UConn). The same page says a thick layer left on the grass into winter can favor snow mold, which may thin or kill the turf.
2. Build a bin. RIRRC says 10 feet of chicken wire, with tin snips and four stakes, makes a bin that holds 16 bags of leaves after they are shredded. Compost with no recognizable pieces should sit about four weeks before it is used. Finished compost from the state's leaves is also for sale: $30 a cubic yard in bulk, with a $15 minimum, or $8 for a 40-pound bag. A compost bin from Resource Recovery is $45 (fee schedule; composting page).
3. Use the pickup you already pay for. If your town is one of the 23 with curbside service, paper bags or a marked barrel are the usual container. Plastic bags are rejected, or charged as trash, on the RIRRC acceptance sheet and on many of the town pages above.
4. Drop them off before you pay a hauler. Fourteen towns publish a drop-off and not a curbside pickup. Several of those take resident leaves for free once you have a sticker. The prices that are not free are in the fee table.
5. Hire the haul only for what the town will not take. Brush over the town's diameter, or a pile after the last pickup, is the job most likely to need a crew. Compare prices on the lawn care cost guide. The town pages for Providence, Cranston, Warwick, and Pawtucket are the ones with a printed 2026 end date and a large curbside program.
6. Do not burn the pile unless your fire district says you can. The permit rules are in the section above. A town that bans open burning does not make an exception because the transfer station is closed.

Data limitations

• The town pages can be stale. RIRRC says each city or town supplies the text and that RIRRC verifies it quarterly. A 2026 calendar from the town overrides a standing sentence that has no year. Where they conflict, both versions are in the table.
• Some 2026 dates are a highlight, not a sentence. Newport, North Smithfield, and Portsmouth were read from the marked days on the calendar. North Smithfield's legend uses one color for recycling weeks and lawn-and-leaf days, so December 19 is the last marked Saturday, not a sentence that says "last leaf day." West Warwick, Middletown's fall weeks, and Woonsocket's curbside weeks are highlighted, and the last day is not printed. Those end dates are not published here.
• Cranston has three versions. The city yard-waste page says April 6 until mid-December 2026. A city page heading says the week of December 19–23, without a year in the heading. RIRRC says April 1 to December 15.
• Portsmouth's two pages describe different services. RIRRC describes drop-off. The town calendar marks curbside yard-waste days. Both are cited. The curbside calendar is why Portsmouth is in the curbside count.
• Hours at the Richmond station do not match across pages. Hopkinton's February 1, 2026 brochure and RIRRC's Richmond page are both linked. Cumberland's yard-waste hours and its facility hours also differ by two hours in the morning.
• Per-ton bars that say "calculated" are arithmetic. The town published a price per pound. Multiplying by 2,000 does not include the minimum charge, so a small load costs more per ton than the bar. Exeter's $1 a bag and South Kingstown's $1.25 tag are not converted, because no bag weight is published.
• Hopkinton's per-pound price says "about." The bar is labeled that way. Richmond's $110 per ton is the posted ton rate for the same station.
• Narragansett is not filled in from South Kingstown's prices. South Kingstown names Narragansett residents on some other materials. The yard-waste paragraph says "residents" and does not repeat Narragansett. Narragansett's RIRRC page does not print a rule. A town solid-waste page describes trash and recycling at Rose Hill. Its full HTML did not load in this check, and the text that did surface did not state a leaf rule, so the row stays not published.
• East Greenwich's 2026 calendar file did not load. No 2026 end date is stated for that town.
• Johnston's municipal code page did not load. The burning section quotes Tiverton and North Smithfield, which did load, and does not quote Johnston's code.
• The fee schedule changes the day after this article. The $40 rate is from the schedule effective July 1, 2026. The November 1, 2026 schedule keeps $40 and adds the commercial fuel surcharge described above.

How we calculated

• Each of the 39 rows was transcribed on October 30, 2026 from the page in source_url, and from secondary_source_url when that column is filled. The file is ri-yard-waste-by-town.csv in data/yard-waste/.
• A row is curbside when curbside_pickup starts with "Yes." It is "no local collection" when the drop-off cell says there is none. It is "not published" when curbside is "not published." Every other row is drop-off only. That count is 23, 14, 1, and 1.
• Per-ton figures marked "calculated" are the published dollars-per-pound price times 2,000. Hopkinton uses 5.5 cents because the brochure says "about 5.5 cents per pound."
• Bag groups, Christmas tree groups, the town tiles, and the December timeline are classified from the CSV columns by make_charts_yard_waste.py. A bag row is "bags only" when it names paper, compostable, biodegradable, or leaf bags and does not also name a barrel, can, or box. A tree row is "curbside" only when that word appears and the row does not also offer drop-off. The script checks the bag counts (16, 9, 3, 11) and the tree counts (12, 11, 8, 4, 4) before it writes the images.
• Charts and the count table were made with make_charts_yard_waste.py. The script checks that the four handling counts are 23, 14, 1, and 1 before it writes the images.

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Sources

• RIRRC, accepted materials and pricing: https://www.rirrc.org/about/accepted-materials-pricing
• RIRRC, fee schedule FY27, effective July 1, 2026: https://rirrc.org/sites/default/files/2026.17.04%20%20Fee%20Schedule%20FY27_0.pdf
• RIRRC, fee schedule FY27, effective November 1, 2026: https://rirrc.org/sites/default/files/Fee_Schedule_FY27%20effective%20November%201%2C%202026.pdf
• RIRRC, Materials Acceptance Criteria, updated May 14, 2026: https://rirrc.org/sites/default/files/Materials%20Acceptance%20Criteria%2020260514.pdf
• RIRRC, location and hours: https://rirrc.org/about/location-hours
• RIRRC, leaf and yard debris: https://rirrc.org/recycling-composting-disposal/leaf-yard-debris
• RIRRC, leaf and yard composting: https://rirrc.org/recycling-composting-disposal/do-it-yourself-composting/leaf-yard-composting
• RIRRC, Barrington: https://rirrc.org/towns/barrington
• RIRRC, Bristol: https://rirrc.org/towns/bristol
• RIRRC, Burrillville: https://rirrc.org/towns/burrillville
• RIRRC, Central Falls: https://rirrc.org/towns/central-falls
• RIRRC, Charlestown: https://rirrc.org/towns/charlestown
• RIRRC, Coventry: https://rirrc.org/towns/coventry
• RIRRC, Cranston: https://rirrc.org/towns/cranston
• RIRRC, Cumberland: https://rirrc.org/towns/cumberland
• RIRRC, East Greenwich: https://rirrc.org/towns/east-greenwich
• RIRRC, East Providence: https://rirrc.org/towns/east-providence
• RIRRC, Exeter: https://rirrc.org/towns/exeter
• RIRRC, Foster: https://rirrc.org/towns/foster
• RIRRC, Glocester: https://rirrc.org/towns/glocester
• RIRRC, Hopkinton: https://rirrc.org/towns/hopkinton
• RIRRC, Jamestown: https://rirrc.org/towns/jamestown
• RIRRC, Johnston: https://rirrc.org/towns/johnston
• RIRRC, Lincoln: https://rirrc.org/towns/lincoln
• RIRRC, Little Compton: https://rirrc.org/towns/little-compton
• RIRRC, Middletown: https://rirrc.org/towns/middletown
• RIRRC, Narragansett: https://rirrc.org/towns/narragansett
• RIRRC, New Shoreham: https://rirrc.org/towns/new-shoreham
• RIRRC, Newport: https://rirrc.org/towns/newport
• RIRRC, North Kingstown: https://rirrc.org/towns/north-kingstown
• RIRRC, North Providence: https://rirrc.org/towns/north-providence
• RIRRC, North Smithfield: https://rirrc.org/towns/north-smithfield
• RIRRC, Pawtucket: https://rirrc.org/towns/pawtucket
• RIRRC, Portsmouth: https://rirrc.org/towns/portsmouth
• RIRRC, Providence: https://rirrc.org/towns/providence
• RIRRC, Richmond: https://rirrc.org/towns/richmond
• RIRRC, Scituate: https://rirrc.org/towns/scituate
• RIRRC, Smithfield: https://rirrc.org/towns/smithfield
• RIRRC, South Kingstown: https://rirrc.org/towns/south-kingstown
• RIRRC, Tiverton: https://rirrc.org/towns/tiverton
• RIRRC, Warren: https://rirrc.org/towns/warren
• RIRRC, Warwick: https://rirrc.org/towns/warwick
• RIRRC, West Greenwich: https://rirrc.org/towns/west-greenwich
• RIRRC, West Warwick: https://rirrc.org/towns/west-warwick
• RIRRC, Westerly: https://rirrc.org/towns/westerly
• RIRRC, Woonsocket: https://rirrc.org/towns/woonsocket
• Barrington, 2026 town calendar: https://www.barrington.ri.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2017/Website-2026-Calendar
• Cranston, yard waste: https://www.cranstonri.gov/departments/public-works/yard-waste/
• Cranston, page headed as the week of December 19–23: https://www.cranstonri.gov/the-last-week-for-yard-waste-pick-up-is-the-week-of-december-19th-23rd/
• East Providence, 2026 collection calendar: https://eastprovidenceri.gov/sites/default/files/field/files-docs/pr_tri-fold_2026_2.pdf
• Hopkinton, Richmond transfer station brochure, hours as of February 1, 2026: https://www.hopkintonri.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif8546/f/uploads/transfer_station_brocher_2_1_26.pdf
• Johnston, trash and recycling: https://www.johnstonri.gov/1211/Trash-Recycling
• Johnston, Central Landfill household-waste pass: https://www.johnstonri.gov/1255/Landfill-Pass
• Middletown, 2026 collection calendar brochure: https://ri-middletown.civicplus.com/DocumentCenter/View/21866/2026-Collection-Calendar--Brochure
• Newport, 2026 yard waste calendar: https://www.newportri.gov/yardwastecalendar
• North Providence, 2026 recycling pamphlet: https://northprovidenceri.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/2026-Recycling-Pamphlet.pdf
• North Smithfield, 2026 collection calendar: https://www.nsmithfieldri.gov/DocumentCenter/View/1992/2026-Calendar
• North Smithfield, open burning ordinance: https://nsmithfieldri.org/DocumentCenter/View/778/Open-Burning-Ordinance-PDF
• Pawtucket, 2026 yard waste announcement: https://pawtucketri.gov/pawtucket-announces-start-of-2026-yard-waste-collection-program/
• Portsmouth, curbside calendar for July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027: https://www.portsmouthri.gov/DocumentCenter/View/7779/2026---2027-Yard-Waste-Collection-Calendar
• Providence, yard waste pickup: https://www.providenceri.gov/yard-waste-pickup-begins/
• Tiverton, 2026 yard waste schedule: https://www.tiverton.ri.gov/DocumentCenter/View/1104/2026-YARD-WASTE-SCHEDULE
• Tiverton, burning ordinance: https://www.tiverton.ri.gov/DocumentCenter/View/801/Tiverton-Burning-Ordinance
• Warwick, 2026 fall yard waste schedule: https://www.warwickri.gov/419/Fall-Yard-Waste-Schedule
• Warwick, yard waste collection: https://www.warwickri.gov/412/Yard-Waste-Collection
• Warwick, recycling drop-off facility: https://www.warwickri.gov/413/Recycling-Drop-Off-Facility
• West Warwick, 2026 solid waste and recycling schedule: https://westwarwick.govoffice.com/uploads/dm/79148/Trash_and_Recycling_schedule_2026.pdf
• Woonsocket, 2026 trash, recycling, and yard waste calendar: https://www.woonsocketri.gov/DocumentCenter/View/1807/Recycling-Calendar-2026---Full-Year
• R.I. Gen. Laws § 23-23-18, regulation of burning in open fires: https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/statutes/TITLE23/23-23/23-23-18.htm
• RI DEM, Open Fires, 250-RICR-120-05-4: https://rules.sos.ri.gov/regulations/part/250-120-05-4
• RI.gov, outdoor burning and permits: https://www.ri.gov/press/view/37757
• UConn IPM, Leaf Disposal and Mulch Mowing: https://ipm.cahnr.uconn.edu/leaf_disposal_mulch_mowing/
• My Green Robot, Rhode Island lawn care costs: https://mygreenrobot.com/ri/lawn-care-costs
• My Green Robot, frost dates and the yard calendar: https://mygreenrobot.com/blog/ri-gardening-calendar-frost-dates
• My Green Robot, Rhode Island Fall Yard Work Index: https://mygreenrobot.com/rhode-island-fall-yard-work-index

Charts by My Green Robot from the public data above. Free to reuse with credit: "Chart: My Green Robot (mygreenrobot.com)". Chart code: make_charts_yard_waste.py.