Leaf Bag Collection begins October 17

This information was provided in a press release from Director of Public Works John Phillips.

The Town of West Hartford will begin its leaf collection season on Monday, Oct. 17, 2011 with a leaf bag collection. The service will continue for 10 weeks until Dec. 23, 2011. Simply place the bags at the curb on your trash collection day and a truck will come by to pick them up.

Thirty gallon, biodegradable leaf bags should be used. Plastic bags will not be collected. Leaf bags should be free of twigs, rocks and trash. For a listing of leaf bag suppliers, go to the Department of Public Works web site at http://www.westhartford.org/publicworks

There are other options to bagging leaves. Consider mulching your leaves with your mower. Make a couple of passes over your lawn until leaves are ground down into a fine leaf mulch. The end product provides nutrients to the soil.

If you don’t want to wait for the weekly pick up, residents may bring their bagged leaves to the at 25 Brixton Street and dispose of them there.

Need help bagging leaves? The Town of West Hartford has compiled a list of civic organizations and individuals interested in helping seniors and disabled residents bag leaves and has posted this information to its web site at http://www.westhartford.org/publicworks. In addition, a list of landscape companies who will vacuum leaves for a fee can be found on the web site as well. To be listed on the either of these lists, call the Department of Public Works at 860-570-8100.

Landscape companies will need to obtain a leaf voucher before dumping leaves from a West Hartford residential property at the Recycling Center. The leaf voucher guidelines and documents are found on the public works web site.

The Town of West Hartford has saved $1,586,459 over the past two fiscal years by implementing a bagged leaf collection service and eliminating the vacuum collection service. Based on the budget for the bagged leaf collection program in FY 12, the Town expects to save at least another $824,892 compared to the cost of a vacuum collection program, an annual average budget savings of $803,784.  The change in service was prompted by escalating costs to provide a vacuum collection and the tight budget constraints on the general fund.

In 2010, the Town of West Hartford collected 6,265 cubic yards of bagged leaves from West Hartford households through its curbside collection program, a 30 percent decrease from the actual volume collected in 2009 of 8,890 tons. By counting compacted loads from packer trucks, the Town more accurately projects its leaf volume, instead of basing volume estimates on the “average leaf bag,” whose actual volume and weight varies widely. Leaf vouchers from private contractors accounted for 1,857 tons of leaves in 2010, up from 1,737 tons in 2009, an increase of almost 7 percent. More residents benefited from the greater competition and lower prices for private landscape leaf collection services in 2010 and took advantage of the convenience of these services.

A leaf bag collection has many benefits. First, West Hartford residents can rake and bag at their own pace. Residents will never have to worry about missing their opportunity for leaf pick-up because the service extends the entire leaf season. Weather is also no longer an issue with a leaf bag collection. Bags can get collected in rain or snow. Equally important, bagged leaves stay put. No more leaf piles in the street causing hazardous driving conditions, narrowing of the roads, and clogging catch basins. Leaves will not blow into your neighbor’s yard or back onto yours. Lastly, from an environmental standpoint, leaf vacuum machines are heavy energy users and polluters. With less of these types of vehicles on the road, we all benefit from cleaner air.

For more information on the 2011 Leaf Collection program, call the Department of Public Works at 561-8100 or visit www.westhartford.org/publicworks.