Valka residents can order autumn leaf collection from private homes until 30 October
Valka municipality collects bags of leaves and branches from private homes free of charge until 30 October. Demand is high this autumn, while unsorted waste in cemeteries damages equipment.
The Valka municipality in northern Latvia is accepting requests for autumn leaf collection from private homes in the town of Valka until Friday, 30 October. The service is free for residents, and the municipality says demand for it grows every year. After 30 October, leaf collection will stop.
How the service works
The municipality's Property Management Department collects full ZAAO bags of leaves from registered addresses. ZAAO is a waste management company; residents must buy its bags themselves, for example at the ZAAO eco-yard at Austras iela 10 in Valka.
Baiba Vorobjeva, head of the Valka municipality's joint state and municipal customer service centre, says residents call every day to order collection. Some ask whether the deadline could be extended, because leaves are staying on the trees longer this autumn, as frosts have not yet brought them down. The Property Management Department has explained that the deadline stands, since the equipment used for collection must be prepared for the winter season.
An address can be registered by calling the customer service centre at +371 66954878 or +371 28644365. Residents can also text the head of the Property Management Department, Viktors Bavins, at +371 25496731, giving the address and stating whether the bags contain leaves or branches.
Waste sorting problems
ZAAO bags may contain only autumn leaves and branches. Bavins describes one case in which a resident tried to get rid of household waste this way. After being warned that leaves would not be collected from the address again, the resident complied the next time.
According to him, the biggest problems are in Valka's cemeteries. Leaves there are often thrown out together with plastic bags, burnt-out candles and glass holders. The leaves are shredded by a machine attached to a tractor and mixed with topsoil, but plastic does not compost, and glass can damage a tractor tyre. A green waste container has been placed at Cimze cemetery, and the newspaper observed plastic bags in it.
Information signs were put up near the cemeteries last year, but Bavins believes few people read them. He urges people to sort waste in cemeteries too, so that the municipality avoids extra costs for equipment repairs.
