Tri-Cities yard waste season ends Nov. 30: stickers, carts, haulers

Weekly yard waste pickup is on borrowed time. In St. Charles, Geneva and Batavia, curbside yard waste collection runs through Nov. 30, and after that only bagged leaves get picked up, free, in December. If you still have garden cleanup, perennial cuttings or a porch full of pumpkins, the rest of November is the window.

St. Charles: Lakeshore Recycling, $4.05 stickers

Lakeshore Recycling Systems (LRS) is the city's hauler. Stickered yard waste goes out on your regular refuse day from April through Nov. 30.

• Use a Kraft paper yard waste bag, 50 pounds max, with one sticker.
• Brush bundles need twine, a sticker, and must be 3 feet long or less and under 50 pounds. Branches cannot be thicker than 3 inches.
• Plastic bags or yard waste mixed with trash will not be picked up.

Stickers cost $4.05 each as of July 1, 2026. You can buy them at City Hall (2 E. Main St.), the Jewel stores at 652 Kirk Road and 2073 Prairie St., DG Ace Hardware (2650 E. Main St.) and Meijer (855 S. Randall Road). LRS also rents 65-gallon yard waste carts by the month.

Food scraps can ride along. Mix fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, eggshells, bread and paper towels in with your yard waste in a stickered paper bag, your own container up to 35 gallons with a sticker, or an LRS yard waste cart. Halloween pumpkins are on the accepted list. Meat, bones, grease, plastic and pet waste are not. To enroll or ask questions, LRS lists 773-685-8811 and StCharles@lrsrecycles.com.

Households that pay the city's brush fee have one more chance before winter: the week of Nov. 16 on the east side and Nov. 23 on the west side. Branches go out by 7 a.m. that Monday.

Geneva: also LRS, $4.51 stickers

Geneva's contract with LRS runs through June 30, 2028. Yard waste is collected weekly on your garbage day from April through Nov. 30, in Kraft paper bags of 50 pounds or less with a waste sticker on each one.

Stickers rose to $4.51 on July 1, 2026. Geneva sells them online through the city's payment portal, in person at the Finance Department (15 S. First St.) and at local retailers listed on the city's website. LRS also offers a 65-gallon yard waste cart, which the city listed at $182.25 a year as of July.

Accepted items include grass clippings, leaves, small branches, vines, plants, flowers, garden waste, weeds, and pinecones and seeds. Food scraps can be mixed in through November. The city says the combined material goes to a permitted commercial compost facility.

Batavia: Groot, $3.37 stickers

Batavia contracts with Groot Industries through June 30, 2028. Yard waste season runs April 1 through Nov. 30. Each paper yard waste bag or resident-owned 35-gallon rigid container needs a prepaid sticker, which costs $3.37 as of July 1, 2026.

If you would rather skip stickers, Groot offers seasonal yard waste carts. The city's posted 2026-27 prices are $191.23 for a 65-gallon cart and $202.16 for a 95-gallon cart.

Stickers are sold at City Hall (100 N. Island Ave.), Ace Hardware (1901 W. Wilson St.), Batavia Shell (200 E. Fabyan Parkway), Jewel (119 S. Randall Road), Menards (300 N. Randall Road) and Meijer in St. Charles. For service problems, call Groot at 630-892-9294.

One more note: Kane County's Fabyan Recycling Center at 517 E. Fabyan Parkway reopened Nov. 9 after three weeks of repaving. Our reopening story has what it takes.

After Nov. 30

All three cities switch to free leaf-only bag pickup in December, no sticker needed. St. Charles collects Nov. 30 through Dec. 29, Geneva through the week of Dec. 28, and Batavia Dec. 1 through 31. Other yard waste has to wait until collection restarts in the spring.

If your jack-o'-lanterns are headed out, the area's pumpkin smash events are another way to keep them out of the trash.