Getting Rid of Yard Waste

Every year, the same story comes back: with the end of the summer and children going back to school, you might suddenly realize that even though you like summer with all the sun and vacations and all that, you really are an autumn person deep down in your soul. Whenever you commute to work or just walk down the street during this season, you just cannot ignore all that colourful beauty that covers everything in sight, muffling your footsteps. You might secretly wish to go back in time and be 10 again, running up and down the streets and kicking your way through the thick layer of leaves. In this great autumn mood you come home and the dream ends when you look at your own lawn. Since leaves generally are great fun, but your own leaves are not, as they are your problem and you have to get rid of them somehow. But don’t worry, as we are here with the 2nd Toronto Homeowner Tip, focused on the best ways how to get rid of yard waste.

In the past, leaves weren’t thought to be such a problem, people either burned it or mulched it. Nowadays, don’t even think about the burning option – unless you are willing to apply for an open burning permit, which could even take you until spring, honestly. In case you go for the most feasible solution and sweep all your leaves to your neighbour’s yard, alright, but you could get them all back and double next year.

Community services

Basically, there are two options – either you will have the community services pick up your organic waste, or you prefer to do the work yourself. If you want the community services to pick up your leaves, make sure to get enough kraft bags, as in Toronto you can no longer put yard waste in plastic bags, it wouldn’t be accepted. In order to pack all the leaves into the bags, you can use either a traditional rake or one of the more sophisticated tools such as a leaf blower. This job can also be done by your own children or some from the neighbourhood, if you cannot do it yourself. The kids will most likely welcome the opportunity to make some pocket money. Either way, check the collection schedule to find out when to have the bags ready for collection.

(Please go to my original article How to get rid of leaves to read the rest of the story.)