Freiburg (dpa / lsw) – Tons of leaves require the use of street sweepers, leaf blowers and garden owners armed with rakes again in autumn. In Freiburg alone, employees in waste management and city cleaning have collected an average of 514 tons of leaves from streets, bike paths and footpaths in recent years, as a spokeswoman said. Citizens can stuff leaves on their doorstep or on sidewalks in autumn into “leaf sacks” of 50 cents, which the street cleaning department takes with them on the next cleaning tour. Alternatively, it can be disposed of free of charge at the municipal recycling yards and green waste collection points.
There are basically similar options in all cities. Stuttgart, for example, offers recycling centers, green waste collection as well as separate chopping and composting areas in addition to the organic waste bin. In Freiburg, the autumn leaves with green waste are sorted in a composting plant and processed into wood chips and ready-made compost. “We use the wood chips to produce biochar in a pyrolysis plant,” explained the spokeswoman.
More than 30 district cleaners are out and about with leaf blowers to blow the leaves from the sidewalk onto the streets. Up to 13 small sweepers then collected it. In addition, the city uses a leaf vehicle with an integrated suction device.
However, you can also do something good for animals with the leaves in the garden, as the nature conservation association Nabu informs: “Piles of leaves distributed on beds and under trees are a retreat for earthworms, spiders, beetles, newts, caterpillars and butterflies. A wide variety of animals live in our soil, Plants, fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms that the autumn leaves protect well. ” After the winter, thousands of living things broke down the foliage and converted it into valuable humus. “That way the nutrients stay in the garden.”
Foliage disposal, on the other hand, can be associated with various problems. The Federal Environment Agency points out that leaf vacuums and blowers can be loud up to 120 decibels. “That makes them about as loud as a chainsaw or jackhammer.” Since noise makes you sick, leaf blowers in residential areas should only be used between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. and between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays – not at all on Sundays and public holidays. Devices with internal combustion engines also generate air pollutants “which most leaf vacuums and blowers even blow unfiltered into the environment”. Devices with a chopping function are also a deadly danger for insects and small garden animals such as frogs, spiders and earthworms.
There is also an innovation in the foliage collection in Freiburg: this autumn, the leaves of all tree species can again be disposed of together in one sack. Chestnut leaves do not have to be bagged separately as in previous years. That was necessary to fight the chestnut leaf miner. In a new composting plant, however, there are temperatures at which the pests die.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 211106-99-888706 / 2
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