2019 Montgomery County Vacuum Leaf Collection Program

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If your home is not in the Leaf Collection District

Learn how to get your community included in the Leaf Collection Program.

Neighborhood Signs

Sign posting in neighborhoods began in late October. The signs will note the AREA your neighborhood is within (example: 1A, 4B, 15C, etc.).

If you know your Leafing AREA, use the table to find the collection dates for your neighborhood. Or, use the address lookup above to find the dates for your AREA.

Leaf Piles

Please remember to keep your leaves OUT OF THE STREET!

Placing leaf piles in the street can cause many problems such as:

• Disrupting traffic - many neighborhoods have narrow streets and on-street parking. Large piles of leaves extending out into the roadway limits parking and the ability of vehicles, especially school buses, to safely negotiate the streets.
• Pedestrian safety - on streets without sidewalks, pedestrians and traffic are forced to share the same narrow strip of pavement. This is especially dangerous this time of year as sunlight diminishes before a number of workers get home from their commutes.
• Disrupting surface drainage - rainstorms can cause leaves and debris to clog storm drains and ditches. This leads to localized flooding.
• Hampering snow removal operations - snow covered leaf piles can become frozen to the roadway surface and can also become extremely heavy, taxing the abilities of our snow plows to move them and slowing down snow clearing in your neighborhood. Snow plow drivers may also mistake snow-covered leaf pile for snow, spreading the leaves all over the street. Residents then have a difficult time raking these scattered leaves back up.
• Posing a fire hazard to vehicles parked over them - there have been many examples of car fires that were caused by the extremely hot catalytic converters of the cars' exhaust system igniting the dry leaves.
• Becoming very slippery in wet weather - causing hazards to vehicles attempting to stop, start or change direction. Accidents have resulted from such causes.

Keeping leaf piles out of the streets prevents these problems. Rest assured that our crews can get to your leaves that are placed on the grass. Any discoloration of the grass is temporary as it is dormant at this time of year.

We appreciate your cooperation with our efforts to promote a safe and efficient leaf collection operation in your neighborhood!

Please remove the leaf piles from the street. Failure to do so may diminish water quality protection.

The 2019 Leaf Collection Season

The Division of Highway Services will begin the FIRST round leaf collection services in early November 2019.

The second and final fall collection will begin around the beginning of December. The timing will depend on weather conditions.

Please check back frequently as the Leaf Collection Schedule and start dates are updated.

The actual collection of the leaves can be affected by rain, snow and ice. These factors may cause a longer than normal collection effort. Depending on the severity of the inclement weather (which affects the ability of our leaf vacuums to collect leaves) other means of collection, such as front-end loaders, may be employed.

Leaf Collection District

The Leaf Collection District is generally south of Bel Pre Road, east of I-270/I-495 and west of New Hampshire Avenue, to the District line. See Map Above.

The Leaf Collection Program continues for 6 to 8 weeks, and includes postings for 2 scheduled pick-ups.

Leafing crews will post signs throughout the work areas several days before our crews' arrival.

The signs will display your Leafing Area and a web address to direct you to the actual pickup dates. Different from previous years, the signs will not have collection dates on them. We will attempt to allow a weekend for residents to rake their leaves to the edge of the road for vacuum pick up.  Signs will be removed after our crews complete each street.

The second and final fall collection will begin around the beginning of December. The timing will depend on weather conditions. The same posting, collection, and sign removal procedures are used for both vacuum collections.

Missed collections

If you believe that your leaves may have been missed,

• contact the MC311 Call Center by dialing 311 (or 240-777-0311), or
• call Highway Services directly at 240-777-ROAD (7623).

Remember, your leaves can also be collected in regular, weekly recycling collections if you place them at the curb in paper lawn bags or reusable containers.

Residents should

• Note the information on the posted signs
• Rake leaves to the road edge (see pictures above) or place leaves in paper yard waste bags
• Leaves placed in plastic bags will not be collected.
• Keep parked vehicles away from leaf piles

Residents should not

• Place leaf piles in the street (see pictures above)
• Place sticks or other debris in the leaves
• Place leaves in plastic bags
• Block access to leaf piles by parking cars on or in front of leaf piles

Thank you for helping us keep our streets safe during the Leaf Collection Program!