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City of Bloomington has no plans to restart curbside vacuum leaf collection 

By Isabella Vesperini

Posted November 21, 2024

A photo of autumn leaves and yard waste in a Bloomington street.

About 13,500 households in the city were affected by this change, and some of them were not happy about the decision. (Emma Atkinson, WFIU/WTIU News)

The City of Bloomington does not plan to go back to offering curbside vacuum leaf collection anytime soon.  

Adam Wason, director of the public works department, said city officials initially decided to discontinue the curbside vacuuming service because studies showed it was the most carbon-intensive operation within the city government, and didn’t align with the city’s climate goals. About 6,000 gallons of diesel fuel were used for the curbside vacuum service. 

“The best thing, environmentally and with sustainability in mind is that, instead of a resident bringing all the leaves from the backyard out to the front of the street so that we could go up and down every street twice, using all that diesel fuel, is to mulch those leaves on site, to use them as compost and a compost bin, etc.,” Wason said. 

About 13,500 households in the city were affected by this change, and some of them were not happy about the decision. Wason noted when it rains, some leaves clog up drains. Wason said the city sends out crews to clear the drains to avoid flooding. He also occasionally sends trucks to sweep the roads clear of leaves. 

“We've kept back a couple of the leafing vacuum trucks for specific locations where we know we have a lot of street trees, where the wind does blow them down to the bottom of the hill,” he said. “We're still taking care of those types of issues as they're reported to us.” 

Even if the city is still using trucks, they hope to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.  

“By not going up and down the road every road twice throughout the leafing season, there's been significant savings there,” he said. 

The city also dedicated around $400,000 in labor to the curbside vacuum service, Wason said. Now, that money will instead be used for sidewalk repairs and paving roads. 

“On an annual basis, our overall rating of all of our roadway segments that we are responsible for was declining at about a percent per year,” he said. “So yes, we did recognize we needed to make more investments in our transportation system.” 

Wason said city crews will be collecting paper bags and yard waste carts filled with leaves at no cost through the months of November and December. Normally, the fee for each leaf bag or yard waste cart is $1. There will be a fee if bags are filled with anything other than dried leaves. Wason also encourages residents to mulch and compost leaves. 

“Overall, we're still continuing to do leaf collection,” he said. “We've just shifted our focus on how we do it.” 