How Does the Council Recycle Autumn Leaves?
| Published: 3rd November 2008 16:08 |
It's that time of year again!
Everyone must be able to recall a time when they were a child, running through piles of leaves, kicking them up in the air and listening to the noise they make.
We all enjoy the autumn colours. However, the fallen leaves aren't such fun when it starts to rain. If left, the leaves will start to rot and become a slip hazard, they kill the grass that the settle on and they can harbour various diseases.
So North Herts District Council has the task of collecting the leaves and removing them from numerous public open spaces. We usually start leaf collections in November of each year and aim to achieve an average of four visits to each location before Christmas. Each visit will cover an area of nearly a million square metres.
Traditionally this work was done by hand with a rake, lots of gardeners and plenty of time. However today there are a number of machines, blowers, suckers, and collectors of various sizes, colours and shapes which all help towards making the job easier.
The collected leaves are taken to our recycling plant at Cumberlow Green, near Baldock, where they are composted along with the organic refuse collected from households in North Herts. The Cumberlow Green plant produces fertiliser for farmers and the end product is also sold in garden centres as "Ace of Herts" compost. We have also provided quantities of leaves to various allotment sites in the district so that they can use them as compost once they have composted down after about twelve months.
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