Leaf pick up in Bowling Green is underway

December 14, 2020

Krista Garrison,

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Fall is coming to an end soon, and there are many leaves on the ground, but the City of Bowling Green is doing something to help recycle them.

Bowling Green Public Works spends part of their November and December picking up leaves.

Here’s how it works:

Residents can rake their leaves to the edge of their property near the road.

Based off of a zoning system, workers will come around and sucks the leaves up into a truck.

Ryan Johnson, street maintenance supervisor for the Bowling Green Public Works.

“We have a crew of four guys. We have one driver, one guy that operated the pipe and two guys that rake. There’s a large fan in there that turns and it’s basically like a large vacuum machine,” said Johnson.

According to Kim Lancaster, the public information officer for the city, the leaves are recycled.

“They then take that those leaves out to the ag farm and then the ag farm then converts that into mulch and then they sell that. It’s part of the process that we go through with them every year,” said Lancaster.

Lancaster said this is a win for residents and for the environment.

“No one likes raking and bagging leaves. It’s a long process and this gives folks an easy way to rake those leaves, if they live in the city limits, to the curb, and have them picked up conveniently and easily. They don’t have to hire someone, they don’t have to bag their leaves, and so it’s just a service that we’ve always tried to provide. We recycle those. It gives back to the community, and it also helps the citizens,” said Lancaster.

“Not only does it help the homeowner remove their leaves from their property, it also is beneficial to the city to get the leaves out of the storm drains as well, and it benefits Western’s Ag department through the sale of the compost,” said Johnson.

To find out what zone you are in, go to bgky.org and click on leaf pick-up. You can search the street you live on and find out which zone you are in and see what days the city workers are picking up leaves in your area.