City leaf collection scheduled to begin
By Anessa Myers
Published in News on November 9, 2007 1:58 PM
As the leaves turn to shades of red and orange and begin to fall, the peak of Goldsboro's leaf collection season approaches.
And every year, the city has a hefty time with the pickup process.
But this year, city workers hope residents will pitch in and help out.
The city usually starts collecting leaves and grass clippings around this time of year to take to the compost center.
Pickup will be on a bi-weekly basis, with each area around the city having a scheduled day and time that the collection will take place.
To help with the process, General Services Director Neil Bartlett and Sanitation Super-visor Tommy Jones said citizens could do a few things to make city workers' jobs a little easier.
One of those is to make sure that the foliage is in garbage bags at the street curb by 6:30 the morning of scheduled pickup.
Delays may happen, but pickup will not stop.
"And we may get a day behind because of the volume of leaves, but we will be by," Jones said.
Another suggestion is to keep sticks, paper and glass out of the leaves and grass clippings.
"No other debris," Jones said.
If there is other debris in the bags, city workers are told not to pick them up.
The extra debris slows down pickup operation which in turn slows down operation at the compost plant.
The third suggestion is for citizens to use lawn mowers and mower blades that automatically collect clippings to use as mulch.
"It helps us. It helps the citizens. It helps the environment," Bartlett said. "I'm a big fan of mulching. I have been doing it for years."
Bartlett is such a fan of using the mulch at home because he said it saves the homeowner time and it recycles the moisture and nutrients from the leaves and grass back into the ground.
"You can recycle it right there," he said.
The process cuts down on the amount that city workers have to pick up.
Peak collection season is usually the month of December, and last year, 908 tons of leaves and grass clippings were picked up in that month.
"The way the trees are looking, it's going to be a bigger year," Jones said.
Anyone with questions related to leaf and grass collection can call Jones at the General Services Department at 739-7450.