City’s annual Fall Leaf Collection set to get underway

Fall Leaf Collection season begins October 14 and continues through December 31, 2019. Residents can start making plans for the second weekend in October for raking leaves and sprucing up the yard ahead of winter.

The Murfreesboro Streets and Solid Waste departments will once again team-up for the seventh consecutive year with a combined system to improve service and efficiencies for the City and its customers.

“The goal is to cover the City twice as fast. The City will be divided in half by U.S. Highway 41 (Broad Street) with the Street Department serving residents on the north and east side of Broad and the Solid Waste Department servicing the south and west side,” said Street Department Director Raymond Hillis.

The Street Department will operate with four Vacuum trucks and a dozen or more crew members. The Solid Waste Department will operate seven Boom trucks with a driver and a crew member raking leaves.

“City residents are asked to place loose leaves within five to 10 feet of the street so leaf vacuums’ can reach them easily,” said Murfreesboro Solid Waste Director Joey Smith. “Leaves should not be placed out in the street, since this causes traffic hazards and potential drainage problems.”

Best Practice for collecting yard trimmings for curbside pick-up is to bag them in biodegradable paper bags available at your local grocery or hardware store. Leaves can be loosely piled, but should not cover or clog storm sewers. This improper placement can hamper the system’s ability to convey storm water as well as adversely affect water quality in our streams and rivers.

To make the process go smoothly residents should follow simple guidelines to improve service and efficiencies for City crews and customers:

• DO NOT combine large tree limbs and leaves; place leaves in separate piles parallel to the street.
• DO NOT place yard trimmings and leaf collection in ditches around or on top of structures such as mail boxes, fences, meter lids, utility lines, utility poles, etc.
• DO NOT place grass clippings and leaf collection in the street as this is a traffic hazard.
• DO NOT place foreign debris such as lumber, household trash, and other types of debris in your leaf pile. It will not be picked up if found.
• DO NOT set clippings or leaves in vacant lots or on vacant properties. This is illegal dumping
• DO NOT place loose leaves under low-lying power lines and cable lines to allow room for the boom to work.
• DO NOT park a vehicle near the leaf pile during daylight hours.

Only biodegradable paper bags are accepted for those residents who choose to bag their leaves. Residents are also asked to keep loose leaves separate from yard waste, including brush, debris and limbs, because mixing them causes damage to the vacuum units and slows vacuum collection. Collected leaves are trucked to Murfreesboro’s mulch site at 4765 Florence Rd.

The heaviest part of the leaf collection season typically ends before the Christmas holiday. Crews will continue picking up bags of leaves through the first or second week of January 2020.

In August, Solid Waste announced expanded hours for limb and brush drop off at the Public Works Facility on Florence Rd. to Saturdays from 7 a.m. to Noon. Murfreesboro Citizens who prefer to remove their own grass clippings, limbs and brush rather than leave it curbside can utilize the Yard Waste Collection & Mulching Facility located at 4735 Florence Road, Murfreesboro, 37129. The Yard Waste Collection Facility is normally open for yard waste drop off Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 6:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The Solid Waste Department developed a new interactive GIS map to show customers where yard waste has been picked up and where crews are anticipated in the future. Areas on the map in red indicate where service has been completed; areas in yellow indicate pick-up is currently in progress; areas in green denote where crews are anticipated soon. The interactive map is viewable on the City’s website at: http://www.murfreesborotn.gov/258/Yard-Waste-Collection.