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Less than halfway through the fall yard collection schedule, London city crews have picked up more than half their seasonal total in bagged leaves, the city’s department of environment and waste management says.
The increase in the number of bags placed at the curb for collection has resulted in pickup delays.
“We’ll be collecting all week long, and we’re about a week behind schedule,” Jay Stanford, the city’s director of climate change and environment and waste management, said Monday.
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The city released an updated schedule Monday.
The third collection in Zone A (Byron, Westmount, Oakridge) is about 95 per cent complete, the city said, and crews will head to Zone B in north and north central London starting Tuesday.
Yard waste was supposed to be collected last week in Zone B.
Collection in zones C and D will begin as soon as Zone B is completed, the city said. Collection in zones C and D was scheduled to start Monday and finish Saturday.
“The weather definitely has a factor in all of this,” Stanford said.
“Unfortunately, the delay impacts residents who want to see their leaves picked up, and we know it’s inconvenient for Londoners, so we ask for their patience as we get through this busy time of year,” he said.
All five zones (including Zone E) have had at least two of four fall pickups, the city says.
October’s warm weather resulted in a lot of simultaneous leaf-raking and bagging, creating a “peak of material requiring additional collection time,” Stanford said.
Crews collected 750 tonnes of leaves last week in Byron, Westmount, and Oakridge, the highest volume of leaves collected in a single week this year, Stanford said. The previous peak was 400 tonnes collected earlier this month in northeast and southeast London.
A “significant portion,” about 3,200 tonnes of leaves out of an annual average of 5,300 tonnes, has already been collected, without including leaves taken directly to enviro-depots, Stanford said.
Yard waste is delivered to Try Recycling to be turned into compost.
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