Soon the leaves will start to fall. But before you start raking and bagging them for your curbside garbage pickup, there may be more environmentally responsible solutions to a lawn full of leaves.
When the leaves start to fall in our tepid Texas autumn, it leaves (pun intended) many of us with the dilemma of what to do with them all. Many people rake them up, bag them, and set them out for curbside garbage collection. But not only is this a very labor-intensive chore for you, it may not be the best way to Take Care of Texas.
Throwing leaves away takes up space in our landfills. In 2021, over 416,000 tons of brush and lawn trimmings went into Texas landfills. That’s a lot of valuable organic material that could’ve been put to better use. And while that number only accounts for 1.09% of the total trash added to landfills last year, it represents something for which we can all take responsibility.
Leaves are a natural, organic source of nutrients for your lawn, plants, and trees. They’re basically a free and effective high-end fertilizer that’s already sitting on your lawn. Throwing them away is a huge waste of resources when there are far better ways you could use them.
