Why You Shouldn't Send Leaves to the Landfill

As the signs of autumn are upon us, homeowners face several landscaping tasks. One of which is dealing with the leaves that fall on the lawn. Every year, millions of households across the country rake up autumn leaves and place them in huge plastic bags to be picked up by the local garbage service. While this might be a quick and easy way to get rid of leaves, several environmental problems come with this "quick fix." Below, we look at some of the ecological consequences of sending your fall leaves to the landfill and then offer a few suggestions for more sustainable ways to deal with autumn yard waste.

Problems with Leaves in the Landfill

Yard waste, including grass clippings, pruned branches from trees and shrubs, and fallen leaves, is the third-largest component of municipal solid waste by weight, surpassed only by food waste and paper products. Of this yard waste, fallen leaves are by far the most proliferous source of waste in volume. 

The first problem with bagging your leaves to be sent to the local landfill is that this takes up precious landfill space. Today, most landfills are lined with high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic to stop leakage of hazardous and toxic landfill waste and avoid groundwater contamination. Because of this plastic liner, garbage tends to decompose at a much slower rate, and debris can take decades to decompose fully. This situation presents a problem in terms of available space for future landfills. By not sending your yard waste to the landfill, you can do your part in helping to divert at least one-fifth of the total amount of waste sent to landfills around the country.

Second, as organic materials such as dead leaves decompose in the presence of non-organic materials prevalent in landfills, methane is released in large quantities. What's wrong with methane emissions? They are 28 to 36 times more effective at trapping heat in our atmosphere than carbon dioxide, a leading contributor to global climate change.

Sending leaves to the landfill is like throwing money out the window. How? The leaves you to bag and send to your landfill can easily be composted into a nutrient-rich organic fertilizer that you can later spread on your lawn. Americans collectively spend upwards of 40 billion dollars each year on taking care of their lawns. A study by Columbia University found that homeowners use at least ten times more pesticides and fertilizers per acre on their lawns as farmers do on their fields. Many of these pesticides cause serious health problems, while petroleum-based chemical fertilizers ruin topsoil. Composting your leaves has many benefits, such as reducing the amount of money spent on chemical fertilizers, reducing the water needs of your lawn, and increases your lawn's resiliency against weeds and pests.

You May Not Be Able to Throw Away Your Yard Waste

The ease of simply throwing away your leaves is becoming increasingly difficult. The Composting Council reported that 24 states had yard waste ban policies in effect due to decreasing landfill space as of 2008. The bans differ in scope. They either prohibit yard waste from being picked up by garbage services altogether or severely limit how much yard waste can be sent to the landfill. The report mentions that municipal and private composting operations that accept yard waste have grown from 1,000 to 3,500 facilities. 8 of the top 10 states with the highest number of facilities have instituted a yard waste ban, including Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Florida, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan.

Finding ways to compost leaves has become a legal issue gradually being enforced across the United States. One of the best ways to avoid problems, as a homeowner, is to learn how to compost your leaves.