CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The grace period is over for Cleveland residents who, until now, have played fast and loose with city policies governing how and when to set out trash for curbside pickup.

Starting Monday, the city will issue citations -- carrying fines that range from $100 to $500 -- to residents who violate any of the garbage policies, including setting out cans too early or leaving them on the curb for too long.

Residents were given three months to get a handle on the rules, during which they received warnings for first violations.

Trash collectors in January began recording infractions on handheld devices that can snap photos and note the time and date. The devices also can produce a notice for the homeowner.

After the information transfers to a centralized computer, the clerk of courts' office will process and mail a citation to the homeowner within about two weeks of the infraction. The homeowner will have 20 days to contest it or pay the fine. After 60 days, unpaid fines will be sent to collections.

The city requires that containers and cans filled with trash weigh no more than 70 pounds; trash cannot be placed curbside until noon the day before the scheduled pickup; cans should be removed within 12 hours after trash is collected; large bulk material should be limited; and branches and pieces of wood should be bundled and not exceed 3 feet in length and 24 inches in diameter.

Neighborhoods in which the city issued residents blue, gray and black carts also are required to participate in the city's recycling program.

Ron Owens, the city's commissioner on garbage collections, said in a news release this week that the stiff penalties were designed to reduce the number of repeat offenders.

And based on results from the program's first three months, the strategy, so far, has worked. Offenders who did not heed the warning were to be penalized on subsequent violations, even during the grace period. But a city spokeswoman said Thursday that the threat of a three-figure fine was enough -- none of the 1,100 residents who received warnings violated again.