Got leaves? City of Omaha offering free yard waste pickup again this fall
OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Every year, the City of Omaha offers two free yard waste pick-ups: one in the spring, and one in the fall. The latter is getting closer and closer.
Right now, many homeowners are letting the wind rake their yards clean, but more leaves are on the way.
Jim Kee is in charge of solid waste collection for the city, and he says the free cleanups are a result of taxpayers showing interest in composting.
“We instituted another contract specifically for yard waste and composting,” Kee said. “So we looked at historically when our peaks times were when we were receiving material, and that’s when we try to layout our weeks of collecting in the spring and the fall.”
People are already out working their yards, getting things cleaned up for the winter. Yard waste can always be placed in a garbage container, but this time of year, it’s usually not big enough. So, residents can put their waste in big brown bags to have it picked up by the city, without even purchasing a sticker.
Property owners can set out as many compostable bags as they desire, as long as they don’t weigh more than 45 pounds.
“It’s just meant for yard waste, if you have leaves, grass clippings, if you’re cleaning up you vegetable garden or flower beds,” said Kee. “Stuff like that.”
Kee says the storms that blew through the Omaha metro this summer may result in extra work for those who have to pick up all the brown bags.
“Part of that is some of the debris that’s still out there to be clean up,” Kee said. “Some of the smaller sticks and maybe some of the larger branches, but at the same time, we lost a lot of trees, so a lot of those leaves that normally would be falling have already been collected.”
No-cost fall yard waste season begins Oct. 28 in Omaha and runs through Dec. 6. Anyone in need of more information on what can be placed in the brown bags can click here or call the Omaha Fall Cleanup Hotline at 402-444-4636.
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