City of Regina rolls out new, temporary leaf disposal program
Permanent plan not likely until 2017, or later
It's the time of year when many residents spend hours raking leaves off their lawns. The leaves are usually bagged and tossed into a garbage bin.
Now, the City of Regina says it has a better plan for all that yard waste: take the loose leaves to one of four temporary leaf and yard waste depots, preferably in paper bags.
The material is then collected for composting, and the plastic bags are kept out of the landfill.
"I would definitely be up for that. I didn't realize that they actually have these temporary depots out there, so I definitely will be looking into this," said Angela Bailey.
Raking and bagging the autumn leaves is a fall ritual for her.
"I don't like the fact that it's plastic and it's going into the landfill, but the leaves, they do break down eventually so I don't feel like I'm doing a great injustice," she said.
In the meantime, she said she'll try out the temporary depots.
"In a perfect world for now, our preferred option for people would be to be bagging their leaf and yard waste in paper bags and bringing it to our depots," said Janet Aird, the city's manager of waste diversion services.
In Saskatoon, there are two permanent compost depots for residents to drop off their leaves and grass clippings free of charge.
Alternatively, for $40.00 per year, residents can use a curbside leaf and yard waste collection program.
In Regina, Crown Shred and Recycling ran a similar program for years, but now plans to end the service in a few weeks.
The city might offer its own curbside program, but that will only be known next year.
"We're looking to investigate options for a permanent leaf and yard solution. And we'll be looking at that in 2016," which will mean a proposed program wouldn't roll out until 2017 or later, Aird said.
Among the options being considered are permanent depot sites, possible curbside pickup and "partnering with local providers," she said.
In the meantime, the city says if residents want to dump their leaves in a garbage bin they can, but are encouraging people to use paper bags and not plastic.
The city also says that leaves cannot be loosely dumped in the garbage bins; they have to be bagged.
The temporary yard waste depots are open every Saturday, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. CST, from Sept. 26. to Nov. 7. The four drop-off locations are:
- Kinsmen Park South — parking lot corner between Kings Road and Lakeview Avenue
- 500 Arcola Ave. — between Victoria Avenue and Winnipeg Street
- Michael A. Riffel High School — 5757 Rochdale Blvd.
- Douglas Park Elementary School — 635 Douglas Ave.