Leaves: Love'em and Leave'em

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Leave the Leaves
Grasscycling

Clean Communities

Ewing Township just updated its rules for leaf, brush, and yard waste collection (see Ordinance 24-19), and it’s something we all need to be aware of. As September 8^th, the amended ordinance allows a scheduled period of loose leaf collection in the months of November and December to simplify and expedite the process of leaf collection for residents. Yard waste must be containerized for collection at the curb any time outside this scheduled collection window. Residents must comply with leaf only policy during this period to ensure the program’s success. Code violations may be issued for containerizing or co-mingling brush & yard waste with loose leaves. 

Brush, like branches and trimmings, can be placed at the curb March through October. These changes are all about keeping our storm drains clear, improving water quality, and staying in line with New Jersey's environmental protection laws.

This new rule regarding loose leaves replaces the old one from 2021 (Ordinance 21-08) that required everything to be bagged in biodegradable paper or put in containers all year round. The update is necessary because of new State regulations, and it helps make sure Ewing is following the latest environmental guidelines. Let’s do our part to keep our community clean and green!

Option 1 - Mulch in place with your mower

We encourage all property owners to follow the precepts of a growing environmental movement called "Love 'Em and Leave Em!" Mulch mowing pulverizes leaves while feeding your lawn and garden. The practice, also known as "grasscycling," works equally well on your grass. Information follows below.   

Option 2 - Loose Leaf Pickup- Bag/Can

While we highly recommend Option 1, mulching your leaves with your mower, Ewing Township will pick up leaves as follows. 

• Loose leaves at the curb will be picked up 5 times during the November/December loose leaf pickup period and as needed in October and January.
• Outside of that period, leaves will be picked up in biodegradable paper bags or in containers only. 
• Residents may put grass clippings in plastic bags for collection on their regular garbage day.  Please use this method of disposal only as a last resort.  We highly encourage all residents to grasscycle their grass clippings.  

A note about Brush* CURBSIDE BRUSH COLLECTION WILL CEASE NOVEMBER-MARCH. CODE VIOLATIONS WILLL BE ISSUED TO RESIDENTS THAT PLACE BRUSH AT THE CURB / CO-MINGLE BRUSH AND LOOSE LEAVES.

Transport

Property owners who wish can continue to transport and dispose of leaves, grass clippings, and yard waste collected on their properties at the Ewing Township Brush Drop Off Convenience Center on Jack Stephan Way.

Follow Mother Nature
Shredding your leaves where they are on the lawn, using shredded leaves as a winter mulch on landscape beds, collecting shredded leaves into compost piles, or simply leaving your leaves under the trees in wooded areas are all examples of using Mother Nature's own time-tested method of turning old leaves into new soil.
Westchester County, NY
The Communities of Westchester County, New York have implemented a successful Leaves: Love 'Em and Leave 'Em program that saves both time and money for property owners every fall since 2012.

• Save money! Reduce the need for commercial fertilizers and mulch. (Mulch costs can begin at appr. $30 per cubic yard plus delivery fees. Bagged mulch is even more expensive and environmentally wasteful (all that plastic).  It can also sometimes be difficult to find mulch that is not treated with chemical preservatives or dyed.)
• Save effort! Mulching (shredding) leaves in-place is much easier and faster than raking and bagging.
• Requires less manpower. (Faster, smaller work crews.)
• Returns much-needed nutrients to lawn, landscape beds and/or wooded areas.
• Supports wildlife providing shelter for the insects that pollinate our gardens, that feed the birds and other wildlife.
• Helps retain moisture, reduced need for watering in dry spells and reducing runoff.
• Protects landscape beds from frost over the winter and cools root zones in the summer.
• Lightens clay soils and gives fluff to sandy soils.
• Feeds the soil.  Increases biological activity of fungus, earthworms, microbes & beneficial soil organisms.
• Grass-cycling (mulching-in-place of lawn clippings) provides similar benefits for turf.

There are also neighborhood- and community-wide environmental and cost benefits of Love 'Em and Leave 'Em:

• If you used the Jack Stephan Way Convenience Center in the past, there are now fewer vehicle trips to dispose of fall leaves, so it's better environmentally in terms of less air pollution and fewer gallons of fuel use.
• Enjoy quieter, more peaceful time off in your yard because leaf blowers typically need to be used less.
• Benefit from less hazardous roadways, because fewer leaf piles spill over onto neighborhood sidewalks and roads.
• Helps protect water quality in our streams, lakes, and rivers by keeping decomposing leaves out of storm sewers.
• Labor, time, and materials savings at both the municipal and the county level can help reduce operating budgets (and thus provide tax relief).
• Eliminates or reduces yard waste from the entering municipal “waste stream.”