Yard waste removal in Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR

What we usually find

Most yard waste removal calls in Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR are one of three piles. A hedge that came out: laurel, arborvitae or photinia cut to the stump and stacked along the fence of a ranch house. Storm debris: fir and maple limbs dropped by an east wind in Camas or an ice storm in Sellwood, waiting in the driveway for pickup. Or blackberry and ivy cut back from a rear fence and heaped.

Limbs hold air, so a knee-high stack across a driveway is often a quarter truck once it is pressed down.

What it costs

A clean quarter truck of yard waste is $199 online, about 4 cubic yards, and it goes to the compost yard instead of the transfer station.

Clean means no household trash in the pile. Bigger green piles are sized on site.

We decide the size on site before loading: we look at the pile, name the tier, you agree, then we load. What pushes a job up is usually more brush than it looked like from the porch.

How the visit goes

We bring the truck, tarps, rakes, a pitchfork and gloves. Have the pile cut and heaped where we can reach it, trash kept out, and the gate unlocked or the code in the booking.

You do not need to be home. If the brush is in the driveway, at the curb or in a back yard we can walk to, we load it, rake the spot and send a photo when it is clear. You do not need to help load or bag anything.

Where it goes

Mixed loads from Clark County go to Central Transfer and Recycling in Vancouver at $118.65 a ton with a $10 minimum, or to the Washougal Transfer Station for Camas and Washougal jobs, where clean yard debris is accepted separately at a lower rate.

In Oregon, mixed loads go to Metro Central Station or Metro South Station at $176.70 a ton with a $51 minimum. Metro South takes yard debris at a lower rate when it is kept separate from garbage.

If a mattress or an old TV turns up under the shed pile, it rides as its own item. Metro accepts up to 4 mattresses and 7 electronics per trip at no charge and WA E-Cycle takes TVs and monitors free, so those are priced by the item, not by the ton. Sound cedar boards and intact pots are set aside for donation or reuse first.

Not teardown, not construction debris

If the fence is still standing, the shed is still up or the deck boards are still screwed down, that is a deck, fence, shed and flooring teardown job: we take it down and haul it away in the same visit. Once it is down, the boards, posts and footings are construction debris, priced at the truck price plus $50 per quarter truck.

Before you book

Can you haul it from the back yard? Yes, when the truck can park within 100 ft of the pile and a gate or side path fits a wheelbarrow. Longer carries are $25 per job.

Does it have to be loose, or can I bag it? Loose or in paper yard bags, since both go into the compost yard as they are. Plastic bags do not compost, so leave the pile loose or use paper.

How soon after a windstorm can you come? Windows are booked up to 7 days ahead with a 2-hour lead time. After a big storm the first days fill, so take the first open window and we arrive inside it.