Here’s what the City of Rapid City offers for yard waste removal as leaves continue to fall

RAPID CITY, S.D. — As leaves continue to fall, some people might be wondering what you can do with yard waste. Rapid City has a few services available.

While you can easily visit the landfill and drop off your own yard waste, they also have a curbside pickup service and a centralized remote site in town.

“We know if it’s convenient for everyone. They’re going to do it,” Ria Hannon, Solid Waste Education and Outreach Coordinator for the City of Rapid City, said. “We really like to offer the best services that we can for everybody. And, you know, coming out to their is really, you know, for the elderly people – people that maybe don’t have pickups. They don’t want to haul their leaves and sticks in their cars. You know, we can come to you and pick it up.”

An important thing to know is both curbside pickup and centralized remote site are only available until Friday, Dec. 2. (They will then start up these services again in the spring like April or May).

Curbside pick-up

• Residents that get the city’s solid waste garbage service can get brown, biodegradable leaf bags which can be filled with leaves and grass.
  • “‘If you can mow it or grow it,’ we say, you can put it in,” Hannon said.
• Once filled, placed them on the curb at least four feet away from the garbage containers.
  • This is so the biodegradable bags don’t rip if the arms happen to snag it.
• On regular collection day, the city’s yard waste truck will come around and get it.
• They will also take branches that are cut into four foot chunks, bundle them up and put them on the curb as well and the yard waste truck will pick those up.

Centralized remote site

• There are yard waste containers at Fitzgerald Stadium, on the corner of Canyon Lake Drive and Sheridan Lake Road.
  • For residential use.
• They can be used for any reason, especially someone who might have a bunch of yard waste that they don’t want to put on their curb.
• They can also put bigger branches in the containers as well as long as they again cut them and bundle them up.