City Saves Money and Increases Sustainability with Changes to Leaf Collection

During 2023 budget hearings held in August of 2022, Mayor Hamilton announced a change to city leaf collection: vacuum leaf collection will cease in 2023. The change will bring significant savings to the City budget as well as actively support the Climate Action Plan, which is essential in mitigating the effects of climate change. 

Beginning this year, residents are encouraged to mulch and compost their leaves on site. Mulching and composting are sustainable and beneficial practices. Leaves are "brown gold" that can act as supplemental nutrition for your soil and, when not shredded, attractive bedding for pollinators. Residents may continue to use yard waste services for dried leaves for free in November while taking advantage of training, information, and support to integrate mulching and composting into their leaf management plans. While typically a bi-weekly offering, yard waste collection will increase to every week in the month of November. For all available support options, see bton.in/QX7sa.

The  change to discontinue the vacuum collection service will impact about 13,500 households in the City of Bloomington who are eligible for the service. To support our residents who need assistance mow mulching, composting, or raking their leaves into bags or carts, the City has partnered with Civic Champs’ Helping Hands volunteer matching platform. If you are a resident needing assistance or able to volunteer to help someone with their leaf management, please register at helpinghands.civicchamps.com. Rakes are available to borrow, and free yard waste bags will be supplied to volunteers needing them.

“This is a bold change, but I feel confident in taking this step after conducting two pilot programs and modifying the approach according to resident input,” says Innovation Director Kidd.

The discontinuation of the vacuum collection service will save the City an estimated $400k annually, a necessary savings because the funding for vacuum collection comes from a State tax whose amounts have been decreasing since 2019 and will continue to do so. Furthermore, attracting and retaining workers to staff the vacuum collection is difficult because the work is seasonal and very physically demanding. 

“The curbside leafing program is likely the most carbon-intense activity in Public Works outside of solid waste disposal,” said Public Works Director Adam Wason.“ As we continue to modernize with sustainability and our climate goals in mind, onsite mulching and composting is the best approach.” 

In addition to enriching soil, this new approach to managing leaves will also eliminate air emissions from the diesel-fueled trucks used to vacuum the leaves, supporting the City’s Climate Action Plan goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25% (below 2018 emissions levels) by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. 

Learn more and stay connected at Leaf Collection | City of Bloomington, Indiana and calculate the climate action impact of mulching and composting at the Zero in Bloomington Composting page. 

Read more about the 2020 leaf pilot program at bloomington.in.gov/innovate/2020-leaves

Read more about the “1,000 Households Who Mulch” at bloomington.in.gov/innovate/2021-leaves