A public hearing on an ordinance prohibiting the placement of yard waste in bags is scheduled for Monday, December 7.
The ordinance, introduced by the council on November 23, requires residents to place their yard waste in a trash can, bucket, or other vessel — excluding bags — in an effort to prevent the yard waste from spilling or blowing out into the street and coming into contact with stormwater.
According to Business Administrator Robert Hary, the company that takes West Windsor’s recyclables does not take leaves or other yard waste that is packaged into plastic or paper bags of any kind. “If people put their leaves inside of bags, we have the added labor of emptying those on the street,” The bags can then become hazardous, either through getting wet from the rain or from blowing around with the wind.
The ordinance supplements one that was adopted last year to prohibit brush and leaves from being placed in bicycle lanes on local roads. The ordinance prohibits sweeping, raking, blowing, or otherwise placing yard waste that is not in a container at the curb or along the street — unless it is done during the seven days prior to a scheduled and announced collection. Even then, residents will not be able to place the yard waste closer than 10 feet from any storm drain inlet, nor in such a manner that it blocks a bicycle lane or other depressed curb crosswalk. Placing yard waste in the public ways adjacent to private property at any other time or in any other manner will be a violation of the ordinance.
“What our biggest challenge is and has been for years is to have the public fully understand and understand the leaf collection schedule we have,” said Hary. “What we ask is residents only put out the leaves a few days before the day of schedule.” Hary said township officials often hear complaints from residents that their neighbors are putting huge piles of leaves out for pickup immediately after a collection, causing them to remain there for several weeks.
Hary said township officials prefer residents to compost their leaves or keep them on their property and off the street until right before collection. “The idea is not to be punitive in nature, but if any residents continue to, on a repeated basis, put out their leaves intermittently and ignore the schedule, we will issue them violation notices. If they continue to fail to comply, it will end in a court summons, and they will be fined.”
