Leaf Me Alone! Toronto Residents Raked Over By January Leaves
January 12th, 2008 Categories: On The Fridge Door
Are you having as much fun as I am raking leaves in Toronto in January? That’s what I thought. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve raked this season, but I know with certainty that I’ve never before had to drag out my trusty rusty rake in January.
Toronto Leaf Collection Nightmare
Residents are beside themselves over this year’s City of Toronto leaf collection efforts. A late drop of leaves (those leaves really stayed on the trees this autumn!), early heavy snowfalls and the warmest January thaw on record combined to create quite a mess of rotting leaves.
Although yard waste collection for Toronto neighbourhoods that “bag it and drag it” to the curb was extended by a couple of weeks, the leaves weren’t falling. And no sooner were the leaves on the ground before the heavy snowfalls arrived. Toronto residents simply had no time to bag them up or sweep them to the curb (for the mechanical street sweepers) before the snow arrived.
Toronto Stuck With Leftovers
Heavy snowfalls meant out of sight, out of mind. Until the thaw. When huge piles of rotting leaves were exposed to the world. Many residents feel the City of Toronto should take another go at leaf collection, but the City advises this will not happen until the spring.
So my January bags go into the garden shed until yard waste collection begins again. But what happens to leaves left at the curb or otherwise blowing around? Although a lot of work, it’s best to bag these, especially those gathered at the catchbasins. Otherwise, these leaves will find their way to the storm sewers and clog the system, possibly causing overloads and basement flooding.
And as much as we all have better things to do, I’d rather rake leaves than mop out my basement any day of the week!
Toronto Waste Collection Schedule
Would you like a copy of the latest “2007/08 Garbage, Recycling & Green Bin Collection Schedule”? Send me an email, be sure to indicate your collection area (1. West of Humber River or 2. West of Yonge St. or 3. East of Yonge St. or 4. East of Victoria Park Ave.), and I would be happy to send you the pdf.
And now I’m off to get my rake; a new delivery of leaves has landed at my back door.
So I am shoveling the soggy mess into the bags and I can already see the paper darkening as the water seeps into the corners of the bag: how am I going to get the decomposing bag to the curb in the spring time?
Nancy,
That’s a scary visual! Now I’m going to have to steel my nerves to look in the garden shed. I just hope my next post isn’t “Feeling Rotten? Toronto Residents Felled by Soggy Leaf Syndrome”.