As the winter months approach, the leaves are falling more and more. People are collecting their leaves and putting them out for yard material collection or taking them to the environmental depots. But what happens to the leaves once they are collected and taken to the depots?
Rick Vandersluis is the Vice President of TRY Recycling and he explained that “it all goes into a compost product so its all ground up and composted” which results in a hydrate soil product.
And once the leaves are composted then “it ends up in bags that you then purchase for soil next year,” said Vandersluis.
Interestingly, 75-80% of the bag of a soil that some buy at stores such as Home Depot is made up of composted leaves. The brand that does this is Scott’s topsoil. The leaves that you take to the depot this fall will be used in the soil for your gardens the next year in the spring.
But it is not only the environment and the citizens of London who buy the topsoil that benefit from this process, community gardens do also. TRY Recycling also deals with community gardens through the City of London. He explained that through donations, they can provide soil and compost to community gardens to help them grow their products.
This is important because London has 17 community gardens which help to provide access to healthy and low-cost food for people; as well as provides physical activity and builds meaningful relationships within the community.
But for now, we are fully into the leaf season. The City of London and the depots are busy bringing in and collecting leaves. Vandersluis said that the TRY Recycling depot on Clarke Road is bringing in over 300 tons of leaves a day. So, one can only imagine how many tons of leaves are being brought into all of the depots in London.
Vandersluis said that they are expecting to do leaf collection up until late November/ early December depending on the weather. But as for right now, they are very busy and expect to be for many more weeks.
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