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Teddy52 - we have once-a-week garbage pickup using containers provided by the waste management company (garbage taken to a waste-to-energy incenerator); we have once-a-week recycling using bins provided by the recycling company; we have once-a-week curbside trash pickup (bagged leaves, bagged trash, yard debris, DIY construction waste, tree limbs, etc). The curbside trash is picked up by the city and taken to the landfill (max pile size ~10'L x 6'W x 6'H or about ~30 bags per week).
Since much of the waste is used to produce value (energy or recycling) that offset the operating costs, taxpayers get to save a little money.
I mulch most of my leaves, but our street dept. picks up the leaves at the gutter in front of the houses. They post it in our newspaper when the pickup will be done.
Around here the trees keep their leaves and we don't have to deal with dead trees. Then again I have palm trees in my yard. I never knew that people had to deal with leaves till I lived in Iowa back in the mid 80's. Back then I saw people burn them in their yards.
Around here the trees keep their leaves and we don't have to deal with dead trees. Then again I have palm trees in my yard. I never knew that people had to deal with leaves till I lived in Iowa back in the mid 80's. Back then I saw people burn them in their yards.
Burning leaves is a no-no in many areas now. Where I live banned it decades ago in Town. In the County you're "supposed" to get a burn permit from the Fire Marshall.
Where I grew up in PA has now limited it to a 2 hour window on Saturdays (I think).
Some of that is a reaction to people complaining about allergies, some of it is air pollution (read some of the threads about fireplaces/wood stoves) and some of it is a realization that leaves composted are a good thing.
Burning leaves is a no-no in many areas now. Where I live banned it decades ago in Town. In the County you're "supposed" to get a burn permit from the Fire Marshall.
Where I grew up in PA has now limited it to a 2 hour window on Saturdays (I think).
Some of that is a reaction to people complaining about allergies, some of it is air pollution (read some of the threads about fireplaces/wood stoves) and some of it is a realization that leaves composted are a good thing.
I miss the smell of burning leaves.
I always heard the main reason was that burning leaves would sometimes blow in the wind and land on a roof or in a chimney or something and start a fire. I've always lived in cities, so I'm sure that's much less of a concern in rural areas.
How can one manage to bag all the leaves yet stay under the limit allowed for garbage pick up ?
I used to have a gas-powered leaf shredder that would reduce ten bags of leaves to two. Like a dope I gave it to a friend when I moved, thinking I wouldn't need it. But, apparently leaves fall here in Florida too.
I used to have a gas-powered leaf shredder that would reduce ten bags of leaves to two. Like a dope I gave it to a friend when I moved, thinking I wouldn't need it. But, apparently leaves fall here in Florida too.
Yes, a shredder is amazing.
I can have a rather heavy covering of oak leaves on my lawn, and when I go over the lawn with my push mulching mower you can't even see there were any leaves.
If they are dry, they seem to really disintegrate well.
I mulched ours with my riding mower then stuffed them in our trash can for weekly pick up. We're not supposed to put leaves in there but the trash truck has the hydraulic "arm" to pick the trash can up and dump it in the top of the trash truck, so the driver never sees what's in it. But what we're supposed to do, and I did on my second round of leaf pick up, is bag them and leave them on the curb. But I still mulch before putting them in the bags. Takes less bags!
The wildest way I've seen to get rid of leaves was when I was on student employment on the grounds crew at Murray State University, Murray, Ky. The southern part of campus is covered with huge oak trees which means the ground is covered with huge oak leaves. The grounds crew takes the leaf blowers to blow the leaves all up in a big wind row, then run the hay baler over them. When they first told me I figured it was a trick on the new worker, me. I asked if they were going to stack them over by the portable post holes (you may need to stop and think about that one. lol). But those leaves baled rather easily and we didn't have to worry about hauling too many bales because people were grabbing them for compost pretty quick!
Year-round yard waste/debris pick up once a week (Weds- bagged whatever, small branches bundled, etc)
Fall -- two days -- leaves vacuumed at curbside. Once day in Nov. Again in Dec.
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