Village of Croton Encourages Residents: Leave the Leaves in Place

A recent notice from the village of Croton reminded residents that leaf pick up services will begin in November – but they will only take loose leaves, not bagged.

Residents are to leave piles of leaves curbside – not in the roadway – for the village DPW to begin picking up in November in a schedule that will be posted on the village website (or you can 271-3775 to find out).

The DPW will not picked up bagged leaves, the village says.

In fact, they’d really rather you not rake at all, standing behind the ‘Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em” campaign of mulching leaves in place when possible.

Here’s a handy video attached, shared with Patch from Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner who promotes the same further south. The village of Irvington has a Green Policy Task Force urging this technique, Scarsdale is on board, as does the Town of Bedford’s “leaveleavesalone.org” website. 

"Don't blow," they say, "mow!" Mulching in place is achieved by chopping the leaves first by running over them in place with a lawnmower, and...that's it. 

Bedford's website talks about the time and cost saved and the environmental benefits:

Bedford’s annual ritual of raking, blowing, piling, bagging, and trucking leaves out of residential neighborhoods costs each homeowner - or their landscaper - hours of time each fall and robs our yards of one of nature's greatest resources: rich, natural compost. 

The town’s curbside pick-up program requires Town of Bedford workers to spend many hours scooping leaves up from the street and carting them to a composting facility. 

Each fall in the Town of Bedford it takes 10 people with 10 vehicles six weeks to pick up leaves. 

This practice causes diesel pollution, and is a waste of time and a waste of money -- our money -- our tax dollars. 

Croton DPW will collect bagged yard waste – that means: small twigs, clippings, flowers and such – if they are in biodegradable bags or left in open-top cans. But please, they say, leave the leaves.

What do you do with your autumn leaves?