PROBLEMS

“Leaves have always been a problem in South Orange. This is because there are so many trees in the beautiful village.”

– 2008 Seton Hall University Environmental Studies
Senior Capstone South Orange Recycling Center Project

Once we burned them. When those costs and hazards became obvious, the Clean Air Act was passed, and the Village began picking up residents’ leaves from the gutter. Now, unfortunately, those costs and hazards have also become all too clear.

 

 

 

 

Curbside leaves not only clog the storm-drains, but the leaf runoff into the drains pollutes the stream, river, and ocean, and decomposing leaves that take oxygen out of water and suffocate aquatic life.

Because of these dangers, the New Jersey’s Dept. of Environmental Protection has severely limited South Orange’s former practice of composting all of our collected leaves at the Recycling Center, beside the river. For a variety of reasons—financial, legal, safety, environmental—we must now focus on reducing the Village’s curbside collection of residents’ leaves.

The village currently devotes many thousands of work-hours and over half a million dollars every year to dispose of the mountains of leaves that residents put in the street, using trucks and front-loaders that burn thousands of gallons of diesel fuel—and disposal costs are rising very rapidly.Each year, 2500 huge truck-loads of leaves are picked up by Village, bringing 16,000 cubic yards of leaves to the Recycling Center. Once these leaves are collected, 12,000 cubic yards of the leaves are removed from the center by a private contractor. This cost is expected to triple by 2010.

Because of these dangers, the New Jersey’s Dept. of Environmental Protection has severely limited South Orange’s former practice of composting all of our collected leaves at the Recycling Center, beside the river. For a variety of reasons—financial, legal, safety, environmental—we must now focus on reducing the Village’s curbside collection of residents’ leaves.

Leaves piled in the streets also create multiple hazards for drivers and children.

For one thing, everything that enters our storm-drains eventually flows into the East Branch of the Rahway River, the main stream in our village.

Downstream, the river provides drinking water to Rahway and Elizabeth before joining the seashore ecology near Linden.

 

S. Orange Budget Items	Estimated* Annual Costs
5,000 gal of diesel fuel @4.89	$24,450
Labor—Regular Time	$351,023
Labor—Overtime	$20,000
Private contractor leaf removal	$71,400
Machine parts	$2,000
Total	$468,873

*Your taxpayer dollars

Meanwhile, about 30% of home water usage goes to servicing these landscaping methods that strip the soil of leaves and all other moisture-retentive organic material

SOLUTIONS

We devote enormous amounts of labor, money and pollution to the suburban ritual of removing all loose organic matter from our lawns and then replacing it from other sources.

Are there alternatives?

Mowing leaves and letting them mulch into the turf, returning organic matter to the soil, is a environmental triple play: eliminate water pollution & expense of fertilizing; save money from reduced water use and eliminate pollution from leaves piled in gutters; save labor costs and vehicle pollution of village leaf collection and disposal.

Creating large garden areas where you can leave leaves where they fall is also a huge environmental play for you, your neighbors, the village, the rivers and the sea: eliminate water pollution of fertilizing and leaf-piles in gutters; save money and labor from fertilizing, mowing, leaf-blowing, watering, and village leaf collection and disposal; eliminate noise, cost, and air pollution from mowers and blowers.

Mulching leaves in bins to create high-quality humus for gardening use that correctly replaces spent nutrients, eliminates cost and transportation pollution of commercial topsoil, eliminates cost and pollution of village leaf collection/disposal, eliminates water pollution from leaf-pile runoff.

RECYCLING  LEAVES

You can recycle your own leaves. Barbara Watson’s “Recycling Leaves in the Yard” (http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/hortihints/0010a.html) proposes:

“Instead of sending leaves to a commercial or municipal compost facility and then buying them back as compost next year, reap the benefits directly by using your own leaves in a variety of ways.”

Recycle leaves on site: rake them to the backyard and turn them into compost or mulch. Composting is great because the leaves enrich the soil with nutrients.

As the leaves fall, you can easily run a lawn mower right over the top. If necessary, mow several times during the autumn so that the mowed leaves don’t completely cover the grass surface. The leaves will provide nutrients for your soil for quality root growth.

Barbara Watson suggests:
--In fully wooded areas, let the leaves lie as they fall. The trees need the natural leaf litter to enrich the soil’s nutrients and quality for maximum root growth.
--Shredded leaves make wonderful mulch around trees, shrubs and perennials. Leaf mulch is an attractive dark brown and slowly decomposes releasing nutrients to the plants. A lawn mower with a bag attached is an easy way to chop and pick up leaves simultaneously, so you can compost them. After the soil freezes in late November, insulate roses and perennials with crinkly dry leaves instead of straw.
--Construct some type of bin of wood or wire to hold the materials. Piles need to be a minimum of 3 by 3 by 3 feet for best decomposition, constructed so air can reach the composting materials.

--Mixing green and brown materials together speeds the process. Grass clippings or other green plant parts supply nitrogen. Dead leaves are high in carbon. Mixing the two assures good conditions for the microbes and fungi that actually decompose the plant material.

SUPPORT

The Environmental Commission encourages in-yard composting through the distribution of small composting units. Residents who are interested in purchasing a composter at cost can be placed on a waiting list.

To take advantage of this enviornmentally friendly offer, click here.

Let us know if you want to learn about homes in our community that model the environmental solutions that interest you. We will put you in touch with fellow villagers who can share their own experiences creating and maintaining them, and help you find ways, large and small, for you to achieve your goal of a “greener” lawn and garden. Click here.

We are negotiating with Habitat for Humanity’s chapter at Seton Hall University, for them to provide volunteers to rake the leaves of South Orange residents—pollution free!—for a small donation to support their annual trip to create low-income housing for those in need. We'll keep you posted on the outcome of those negotiations.  Of course, there is also the tried-and-true method: our own local teenagers with rakes! It’s tested and proved: The money that many of us spend on motorized landscaping can make local teens very, very happy!

Special thanks to the "2008 Seton Hall University  Environmental Studies Senior Capstone South Orange Recycling Center Project” by Maria King, Brielle Kociolek, Brianne Krakovsky, Lauren Ludwig, Shannon O’Donnell, Lauren Tumminia, and Beth Wislinski.