By Pepper Parr
August 28th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
Fred Crockett, a Burlington based real estate broker and a man with a quick word when he is unhappy.
And last fall he was unhappy, very unhappy with the way the city handled the fall collection of leaves.
He wrote saying he was looking forward to a return to sanity on the way the city decides to collect al those leaves.
Climate change got the best of city hall – and we saw equipment out on the streets with nary a leaf to be found.
The leaves had decided to cling to their stems for just a little longer.
Tough call for the city – how do you know when the leaves are going to fall – they certainly didn’t follow past practices.
No word yet if the city has learned anything from the experience last year.
Crockett refers to “last year’s debacle” as something the city might want to try and avoid.
Maybe it’s time to “think outside the box”. e.g. give every household a supply of environmentally compostable bags so that they can be filled with leaves, tied, and left in the curb. City workers can come by and pick them up more easily than it takes to move dump trucks and front end loaders around.
In the meantime I’ll just continue to rake my leaves and put them in paper bags for yard waste pick up every two weeks. I can’t wait for the City to get their act together on this issue. Even when they are piled in the curb they blow around later and make a mess.
I was told this was a logistical issue: they have to fit in two rounds of pick up for every zone and have it all done in time to get the equipment switched up for snow removal. But yes, a complete waste to pick up leaves that aren’t there.