Philadelphia’s Streets Department will begin collecting fall leaves from the city’s curbs Monday. The annual collection service will last six weeks.
But there are regulations to follow to ensure the leaves are picked up on the designated days for each neighborhood.
The streets department will only collect leaves that are neatly raked to the curb or in biodegradable paper bags. This reduces contamination so the leaves can be recycled. Additionally, residents are urged to avoid mixing trash into the bagged leaves since they won’t be usable.
The city carefully selected areas that receive a significant amount of leaf buildup -- mostly in northwest and Northeast sections of the city. People who wish to recycle or remove their leaves, but are not in an area selected for the collection program, can head to any one of five sanitation centers to drop off their bagged leaves or one of 23 locations spread out throughout the city on Saturdays (excluding the Saturday following Thanksgiving) frm Nov. 21 to Dec. 19.
Leaves can be also reused for personal composting.
