DEARBORN – The city will be collecting fallen leaves in neighborhoods in two ways this autumn.
As always, the preferred method of collection is to rake leaves and put them in paper yard waste bags or in properly marked 20- to 32-gallon containers and set them at curbside on trash pickup days.
This guarantees that leaves will be picked up each week on trash collection days. It also keeps the streets clearer and reduces any potential impact on traffic from piles of wet leaves or leaves stacked high in the roads.
Leaf pickup by this method is continuous and every week until curbside yard waste collection season ends on Dec. 3.
Alternative method
An alternative method for disposal is the city’s loose leaf collection system, which is scheduled to begin Monday and end Dec. 4. Weather conditions can alter this schedule.
Loose leaves raked in to the street will be picked up on trash day during the weeks that neighborhoods do not recycle.
Every neighborhood is on an “A” or “B” week recycling schedule. For instance, if a neighborhood recycles in a B week, crews will be in that area on trash day during an A recycling week. This is neighborhood B’s nonrecycling week.
On an A week schedule, crews will be in the area on trash day in a B recycling week. This is neighborhood A’s nonrecycling week.
Leaves should be raked into the street as close to trash day as possible during that neighborhood’s nonrecycling week.
Limitations
Trash sections are larger than in the past, which means that the city might not complete picking up loose leaves in a specific neighborhood on trash day in one week.
City crews will not return to that neighborhood until the next nonrecycling week. In addition, city crews will start in the section where they left off during the last trash day in the nonrecycling week.
Keep parked vehicles off the street
Vehicles must be parked off the streets on trash day, which is that neighborhood’s Public Service Day. That way, crews can best pick up the leaves raked into the street. Parked vehicles on the street during Public Service Day are subject to ticketing.
Call the Leaf Collection Hotline at (313) 943-2444 for more information.