The city of Durango’s annual fall cleanup presents an opportunity for residents to discard tree branches, brushes and leaves without having to lug the materials away.

This year, the city is offering free compostable bags for collecting leaves to residents who pay for city utilities in an effort to divert yard waste from the landfill and put it to more productive use. The bags are available at the Durango Recycling Center.

“You can get up to 10 (bags), although we ask that people only grab as many as they need because we have a limited supply. And once we are out, we're out,” Durango sustainability manager Marty Pool said.

If residents bag their leaves before fall cleanup crews reach their neighborhood, they can simply leave the bags at the curb and city staff will pick them up during their regular sweep, Pool said. Residents can also bring their bags to the Recycling Center the week of Oct. 29 where a collection trailer will be stationed.

Collected leaves will be given to Table to Farm Compost for composting, where organic materials are converted into a nutrient-rich soil or mulch through natural decomposition.

Monday through Thursday, fall cleanup crews will be visiting the east side subdivisions of Riverview, North College Drive, Hillcrest and SkyRidge. Participating residents should have their plant materials ready for collection by Sunday, according to the city’s fall cleanup schedule.

From Oct. 23-26, crews will hit residential areas south of 15th Street and west of Ninth Avenue, including both the westbound and eastbound lanes of U.S. Highway 160.

Pool said the Recycling Center cannot collect logs, sticks or branches because wooden materials need to be processed another way. But residents looking to dispose of branches and logs can still place them on the curb for the city’s ongoing fall cleanup program.

Also, the city cannot accept leaves littered with pet waste or leaves that have been treated with pesticides or fungicides because the chemicals are disastrous for the composting process.

“Those have to go to the landfill because those can be really damaging for the composting process,” Pool said.

Pool said residents are sometimes frustrated with the city’s fall cleanup schedule. But the community cleanup, which is carried out by the city’s trash and recycling department and street crews, is scheduled ahead of time because the city has to be prepared for an early start to winter.

“We get a lot of questions of like, ‘Why do we do spring and fall cleanup when we do? I only have this week and the leaves haven't even fallen yet, so you skipped me,’” he said. “We understand that is a challenge. We're kind of balancing the unpredictability of Mother Nature with the logistical constraints of our staffing and equipment.”

He said the city’s street crews are working to facilitate new ways to divert leaf and yard waste.

But if raking leaves sounds like too much work, there’s nothing wrong with leaving them be, he said.

“Letting leaves decompose naturally in their yards or using leaves for certain mulch applications can be a great excellent alternative to collecting leaves at all,” he said.

Following Halloween festivities, Durango and La Plata County residents will also have the opportunity to dispose of their pumpkins, gourds, apples and leaves at the La Plata County Fairgrounds the weekend of Nov. 4, Pool said.

The city has previously partnered with the county and the La Plata County Extension Office to host the materials drop-off, and the service is continuing this fall. Pool said the materials will be distributed to area ranchers to feed to their pigs.

The fairgrounds drop-off is also another chance for residents to dispose of collected leaves, but they should be prepared to help empty the leaves into a collection trailer, Pool said.

Inorganic materials won’t be accepted, he said. That means pumpkins used as Halloween decorations should be cleaned of any candle wax, ink, paint or plastic before they are taken to the fairgrounds.

Pool said over 5,000 pounds of pumpkins and over 700 30-gallon bags, or 21,000 gallons, of leaves were collected at the fairgrounds last year.

cburney@durangoherald.com