Taunton's last curbside leaf pickup of 2026 is the week of Nov. 16, and Freetown and Marion take leaves at their transfer stations

SOUTH COAST Taunton households get one more curbside leaf pickup this fall, during the week of Monday, Nov. 16, on their regular trash day. Leaves go out in paper bags, boxes or barrels, and the city will not take plastic bags. After that week, Taunton's next curbside yard waste collection is the week of April 26, 2027.

In Freetown and Marion, leaves go to the town transfer station, and Wareham takes yard debris at its Municipal Maintenance yard, each with a resident sticker. Rochester residents can use the Marion site. This guide covers those five communities, with notes on New Bedford and Dartmouth.

Taunton

Republic Services, the city's curbside contractor, picks up yard waste only in set weeks. This fall's first collection week, the week of Oct. 26, has passed, and the last is the week of Nov. 16, with collection on each household's regular trash day. In any week with an observed holiday, pickup runs a day late.

Leaves, grass clippings, tree and hedge trimmings, weeds and other waste from yard work can go out in barrels, boxes or paper bags. Under the city's rules, yard waste goes at the curb, or within 5 feet of the back of the curb or the edge of the road where there is no curb, and never in the roadway. It goes out on collection day itself, by 7 a.m.

Between pickup weeks, residents can bring leaves, grass and brush less than 1 inch in diameter to the compost area at the city's Convenience Center, 330 E. Britannia St. It is open Wednesday and Friday from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The charge is $2 for each 30-gallon paper yard waste bag or 32-gallon open barrel, and $25 for each pickup truck or trailer load. Commercial loads and plastic bags are not accepted. The center takes cash, checks, money orders and credit cards. The Department of Public Works, 90 Ingell St., is at 508-821-1431.

Freetown

Freetown has no pickup service for yard waste, and the weekly trash and recycling trucks will not take it. The town takes yard waste and brush year-round at the transfer station instead: leaves, grass clippings and pine needles in bags or barrels, and limbs and branches no bigger than 10 inches in diameter and 18 inches long.

The transfer station is open Tuesday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Its seasonal Sunday hours, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., end after Sunday, Nov. 1. The gate closes half an hour before closing time, and the station is closed Mondays and holidays. A resident sticker is required, and each household can get two free stickers at the transfer station with proof of residency, such as a vehicle registration, tax bill or license. The transfer station is at 508-644-2403.

Marion and Rochester

Marion takes grass clippings, leaves and other composting materials, along with brush, tree limbs, branches and stumps, at its transfer station, 55 Benson Brook Road. It is open Wednesday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. A sticker has to be bought before anything is dropped off, and the Town Clerk's office issues them Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Friday from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Rochester's Highway Department does not accept brush, branches, grass clippings, fallen trees or stumps, and it does not pick items up. Rochester residents can buy a sticker for the Marion transfer station, which costs $70 per vehicle, or $60 for seniors 70 and older and veterans. Rochester sells the stickers in person for cash or check, or by check through the mail or the drop box at the front of Town Hall, and each one needs a vehicle registration showing a Rochester address. The Marion transfer station answers questions on hours and accepted items at 508-748-3500.

Wareham

Wareham residents with a town transfer station sticker can drop off yard debris at Municipal Maintenance, 95 Charge Pond Road, on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. In November, those are Nov. 14 and Nov. 28. The yard debris drop-off is for Wareham sticker holders only, and Carver stickers do not cover it.

Households in the town's curbside trash program are eligible for one transfer station sticker at no extra cost, available at the Municipal Maintenance office. It has to go on a vehicle from the curbside address. Municipal Maintenance is at 508-295-5300.

New Bedford, Dartmouth and the rest of the region

Yard waste the City of New Bedford and the Town of Dartmouth collect goes to a separate section of the Crapo Hill landfill, where it is piled in long rows to break down into compost. The Greater New Bedford Regional Refuse Management District gives that compost free to New Bedford and Dartmouth residents, though the district does not accept yard waste that residents bring to the landfill themselves. The landfill, 300 Samuel Barnet Blvd., is open Monday through Friday from 7:15 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday from 8 to 10:45 a.m.

New Bedford's curbside yard waste weeks and Recycling Center hours are in our Oct. 27 New Bedford story, and Dartmouth's curbside Fridays and Russells Mills Road drop-off are in our Oct. 23 Dartmouth story. Fall River, Somerset, Swansea and Westport are in our Oct. 24 leaf pickup guide.

How we chose

This guide covers the towns whose own public works, transfer station or city pages list their fall yard waste rules, as they read on Saturday, Oct. 31.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.