The 2023-2024 leaf season is the last that the City of Greensboro will pick up loose leaves.
According to city officials, the city is going to save $10 million over the next 15 years by ending loose leaf collection and requiring residents to put leaves in biodegradable paper bags or in the 95 gallon gray yard waste container that the city will provide to each residence.
However, to save that $10 million, the city has to spend some money, and at the Tuesday, Jan. 2 meeting, the assembly and delivery of 75,000 yard waste bins at a cost of $369,000 is on the Consent Agenda for City Council approval.
The Consent Agenda is a list of “routine and noncontroversial items” that according to City Council policy cannot be discussed and are all approved with one vote.
The ending of the loose leaf collection program has been highly controversial, with petitions still being circulated among residents demanding that the loose leaf collection program not be eliminated.
However, according to the City Council, spending $369,000 to end the program is a routine and noncontroversial item.
According to city staff, the city will also have to purchase five additional yard waste collection trucks – which typically cost several hundred thousand dollars apiece – in order to launch the new yard waste collection program. The staff presentation on ending the loose leaf collection program also noted that the city currently owns 33 pieces of equipment related to loose leaf collection that the city will no longer need.
The new yard waste collection program begins on March 1 after the current leaf season ends in February, and beginning on March 1 the city will no longer collect yard waste in the clear plastic bags that are now required.
So, on Feb. 29, the city will only collect yard waste in clear plastic bags, and beginning on March 1, the city will not collect yard waste in clear plastic bags but only collect yard waste in biodegradable paper bags. Up to 10 biodegradable paper bags of yard waste will be collected weekly from each residence, except during leaf season when 15 biodegradable paper bags plus the 95 gallon yard waste bin that the city will provide will be collected.
During the presentation on all of the benefits of this new yard waste collection program, city staff maintained that after leaves were placed in the biodegradable paper bag they became lighter.
However, it is not true that city staffed claimed that the new program would result in Greensboro being a city “where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.”
Hello,
Finally a good policy from the City of Greensboro! I’m just glad to do my fair share in saving money for the tax payers of Greensboro.
Thanks
John Salmon
I’m going to buy me a “leaf sucker” truck and start a business next Fall. I don’t mind making a great deal of money! If the City wants to sell the ones they have, I’m in!
An entrepreneur like Carter could probably save the City tons of money, and a good bit of it would go into his pockets. Recycling businesses are a good thing.
Do you meet the racists requirements the city has established?
The city is being tone deaf on the leaf issue. How can you raise taxes 25% and then cut services to those paying taxes? Need an injunction on their spending on bins and trucks until the voice of the people can be heard.
The “injunction” is scheduled for the next election cycle. Do your part by getting out the “NO” votes on any incumbent.
A fool’s folly….
I cannot begin to say what a stupid plan this is. On top of a 30% increase in taxes this city council wants us to belive they can save the city money with this stupid plan. Increase our taxes and remove services does not sound like good goverment. Again they want the people who pay their salaries to do the work they should be doing and we should thank them. How do I get a petition to stop this?
Don’t ever retire a single current City Council member. Greensboro voters love this half-circle of total Circus Clowns!
How will they pickup limbs off trees and shrubbery trimmings! How about grass clippings? How will they be handled. How about pieces of wood that had been sawed into lengths?
There is a lot of debris that is caused by storms that must be disposed of during the season. Most every home has plastic cans that are excellent for placing debris for pickup and it doesn’t add to the trash like paper bags or clear plastic.
Again I ask why paper bags since it has been known to rain and snow on trash day which then destroys the bags and then either the homeowner or the yard person they pay has to do it all over again. Really great news for the elderly or disabled. We should get a tax rebate on all those savings!
Who elected these clowns?
If it was you, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?
Less than 15,000 people showed up at the polls the last time the council was elected. THEY elected these clowns?
How about all the 200,000+ voters who did not bother to vote are the ones responsible.
If nothing else, the City’s staff should be congratulated for negotiating a purchase price of $4.92 per container. WOW!
75,000 trash bins for 369 thousand ? i doubt it.
No kidding. With number errors like that, it really calls into question all the other claims, like saving $10 million over 15 years. Just under $5 per rollout container? Right!
I always been told “ don’t pee on my back and tell me it’s raining “. That’s what the council and staff are doing
Thank you for your updates on this matter. It has been known that once the Council has made up their collective mind, it is rare they will change it, no matter how much protest. It is also clear how out of touch they are with their constituents. I live on 2 acres in the city limits, half of it is wooded. Every single week I have one to 4 containers of sticks and limbs on the curb for pick up. If I’ve had tree work done, or one has fallen, there have been weeks when I had 10 or 11 containers at the curb. I would like to ask them how in the world I am to put STICKS in PAPER bags once my one measly can is filled?! I have pictures of some of those weeks and would love to send you. And what about larger, 5′ limbs they would pick up? I did not sign the petitions though I support them. My woods happily accept the mounds of leaves I blow there annually.
Do they realize they might well have to stop many houses EVERY week for a year to get all the leaves? Idiots
Lol, all BS. This city has nothing above average, especially the current city council.
$369 thousand for 75 thousand yard waste cans? Is that realistic?
This is terrible policy by the me to city of Greensboro. Since other city’s did it Greensboro thinks they should too. Greensboro can waste money on garbage like patios on Elm street but can’t pickup leaves. Paper bags are a joke, They are way too small and expensive. It will take some people months filling a yard waste bin every week to get rid of all their leaves. The tax rates in Wimston-Salem are less and they are not stopping leaf service. Save money on useless projects and continue leaf service.
I agree with everyone about everything. The city is not here to make a profit, our taxes are extorted from us supposedly to provide services that we cannot do ourselves. Such as water, sewer, fire, police, waste disposal, etc.
We pay for all that, and more; they waste the rest.
I don’t have room for another big trashcan that I would only use 3 or 4 times a year! I live in a townhome.
When I observe the volume of the container compared to the volume of leaves heaped up in the yards along Hobbs Road where I live it seems fairly obvious to me that all the drains in this part of town will be filled with detritus by this time next year. It will be curious to compare then the drainage cleanup cost with the expected leaf program savings. I also do not think that fines or ordinances will be much help, since proving whose yard the leaves came from will be an even bigger challenge than the dubious math behind this dimwitted decision. But maybe all the unclaimed leaves lying around will obviate the need for “traffic calming devices” so that we taxpayers will be saved millions…
The article misstated that the purchase of the bins when it was for assemble and delivery of the bins per the CC AGENDA
It might of been explained somewhere I missed, but how will the city pickup the yard waste bins without buying an additional fleet of trucks? I have a small totes container now and city employees complain about picking it up and
Will not if full of branches and heavy yard waste.
Plus the current trucks used will have to be used to collect the paper bags. Lastly, who is responsible for the mess of failed paper bags on rainy days?
You can bet our intrepid city manager had a lot to do with this. Struggling to do a good job removing leaves?
No problem, give up and pretend paper bags and a roll out can will be the answer. Rather than focus on
improving this valued service, especially with ample funds from the record tax increase. We fund an Office
of Sustainability, whose major contribution on the subject is to lecture us all about mulching your leaves
into your lawn. Is it even possible to vote out the council? I doubt it.
Tax payers are loosing a service they want and need without any input. We are not getting the full story but the city is ploughing ahead A
anyway. Thank you Hugh Holston and Zack Matheny ……OTHERWISE THE CITY NEEDS NEW LEADERSHIP. GNR DOES NOT COVER THE STORY. THANK YOU RINO TIMES FOR KEEPING TAXPAYERS INFORMED. TAXPAYERS ARE NOT GETTING THE FULL STORY.
I STILL PRedict THE TAXPAYERS WILL REJECT THE PROPOSAL THAT HAD ZERO TAXPAYER INPUT. WHY DOES WINSTON SALEM DESERVE BETTER.
I STILL BELIEVE THE TAXPAYERS WILL REJECTA proposal that is an OBSOLETE SYSTEM BEFORE IT IS INSTALLED.
WHEN STRAGE IRRIGATIONAL DECISIONS ARE MADE I ALWAYS RECOMMEND FOLLOWING THE MONEY TO FIND THE ANWSERS.