DEARBORN — The city’s annual program to dispose of fallen leaves is scheduled to begin on Monday, Oct. 24.

To help prepare residents, the city has released a guide that lists ways they can assist with fallen leaves on their properties:

Put leaves in yard waste bags each trash day through the week of Dec. 12-16

The best method to ensure your leaves are picked up by the city after they fall is to put them in yard waste paper bags or 20–32-gallon containers with a city yard waste sticker and set them at on your easement every week on your trash day, which is also your Public Service Day.

Place any paper bags or containers on your easement by 7 a.m. on your trash day each week. They will be picked up that same day by the city’s trash contractor, GFL. Do not put bags or containers in the street.

If you need yard waste stickers, they can be requested by phone by calling (313) 943-2150 at no charge.

Leaves in plastic bags or in cardboard boxes will not be picked up.

The collection of leaves in bags or containers on your easement ends on your trash day the week of Dec.12-16.

Alternative: rake loose leaves into the street, Oct. 24-Dec. 1

A different program to dispose of your leaves is to rake them loose into the street. However, loose leaves will NOT be collected every week in front of each house.

The collection of loose leaves raked into the street is scheduled to begin the week of Oct. 24 and end the week of Dec. 1. (The last pickup for every neighborhood is scheduled on the trash day for that neighborhood that week.)

Although loose leaves in the street will NOT be picked up every week in front of individual homes, leaf collection crews will be in the neighborhood on the trash day for that neighborhood, picking up as many leaves from the street as possible.

The schedule for the collection of loose leaves in the street can be found online at www.cityofdearborn.org.

Residents may also call the Leaf Hotline at 313-943-2444.

More details explaining the loose leaf collection

Loose leaves in the street are picked up on a neighborhood’s trash day. City crews will be collecting leaves on trash day, and then a week later, will return to begin collecting loose leaves where they left off the previous week in that trash district.

So loose leaves crews will be in the Monday trash district on Mondays,and then move to the Tuesday district on Tuesdays, and then the Wednesday district on Wednesdays, etc. The schedule will be published on www.cityofdearborn.org so that residents have a general idea of where the loose leaves crews will be starting on that trash day a week later.

Extra collections possible

There may be times when additional loose leaves crews are out on weekends, or a day ahead of a neighborhood’s trash day, so that they can get an early start. If that occurs, these are additional collections and will not be part of the published schedule for loose leaves pickup.

Residents do NOT need to hurry up and rake leaves into the street if they see crews on a day they are not expecting. Crews will be in the neighborhood on the scheduled trash day as well.

Reduce danger by not raking loose leaves into the street too early

Raking loose leaves into the street too soon leads to dangerous driving conditions and leaves that blow back onto neighbors’ yards. Contractors paid by residents to rake leaves must follow the same rules and not rake leaves into the street unless it is the day before trash pickup.

Leaves raked into the street should be kept away from catch basin inlets and placed in a uniform row approximately 1 inch from the curb, to promote drainage and ease of collection.

Keep parked vehicles off streets 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on trash days

City crews will have a tough time collecting loose leaves raked into the street if parked vehicles are on the road in neighborhoods.

Please keep your parked vehicle off the street from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on your trash day (Public Service Day.) This is always a good practice, but is especially important during the loose leaf collection Oct. 24 through the week of Dec. 1.

Thanksgiving Week

There will be no collection of loose leaves raked into the street on Thursday, Nov. 24 due to the Thanksgiving holiday. The Thursday trash district will not have loose leaf collection that week. Leaves in bags or approved containers set out on the easement will be picked up along with trash and recycling on Friday, Nov. 25.

Click here for the loose leaf schedule for the week of Oct. 24.

Residents can also find more information and the weekly leaf collection schedules at www.cityofdearborn.org