Leaf Disposal Safety Tips

Safety Tips

Some important things to remember if you’re placing leaves in the street for pickup:

• An easy way to dispose of leaves is to place them in yard debris containers. For more information about yard debris containers, contact your local hauler: Lane Apex Disposal Service, Royal Refuse, or Sanipac.
• Keep leaves out of the bike lanes. Eugene Code prohibits the obstruction of bike or travel lanes with leaves or other debris. And property owners are liable for any injuries or damage that result from placing materials in the street.
• Place leaves in the street without obstructing bike lane or traffic. Piles that even partially block a bike lane or traffic lane can cause motorists or cyclists to swerve into oncoming traffic.
• Wait until the weekend for your specific neighborhood to place your leaves in the street. Leaves placed in the street too early tend to blow around or get washed into storm drains.
• If you live on an unimproved street place you leaves where they can be reached from the roadway. Our equipment will not leave the road’s hard surface.
• Keep curbs, gutters and catch basins clear to prevent flooding (place the leaves well away from the catch basins). If a catch basin does plug, scrape the leaves away from the grate. Be extra careful working in travel lanes or standing water.
• Keep leaf piles clean. Don’t mix leaves with branches, rocks, lawn clippings, Christmas trees/holiday greenery, or other debris because that makes it difficult to reuse the leaves for mulch or compost. The leaves that are put out are distributed to your neighbors, friends and community gardens. If a pile is visibly contaminated with non-usable material, it might not be picked up.
• Leave at least 15 feet between leaf piles and parked cars or other items that might block our equipment. If our equipment cannot safely reach your leaf pile, we cannot pick it up.
• Remove leaves from sidewalks. Wet, slippery leaves are a hazard to pedestrians.
• Once leaf collection has occurred on your street, do not place more leaves in the street until the next scheduled round of collection.
• Following collection there may be a delay when sweepers finish cleaning the street.
• Watch the Leaf Safety Video.