Leaves that are bagged and left curbside in Garland are carried to the landfill to become part of the landfill mass. They are not recycled. This is a missed opportunity. Those leaves represent future soil and nutrition for plants and grass in your yard that you are throwing away. Soil is made by nature through the process of decomposition of organic matter such as leaves. When you have leaves removed from your property, you will eventually need to replace the soil and other nutrients that would have been provided free for you by the leaves.
Soil is an endangered resource. “The world's soils are rapidly deteriorating due to soil erosion, nutrient depletion, loss of soil organic carbon, soil sealing and other threats, but this trend can be reversed provided countries take the lead in promoting sustainable management practices and the use of appropriate technologies . . . . “ From a United Nations Report issued in December of 2015
Proper stewardship of the land is no longer the sole responsibility of those living the agrarian life. Proper land management is also the responsibility of urban dwellers and will increasingly become more important as we move toward 2050 when it is estimated that 80% of the world’s population will live in urban areas.
If you don’t know by now, change for the better ultimately rests in the hands of the individual--you and me. No large organization or great technological invention is going to step in and magically correct the deficit we continue to build with Mother Nature. Already it takes the planet one year and six months to regenerate the resources we use in one year. We all need to reduce our ecological footprints—as individuals and as cities and as nations.
We all know what eventually happens to a financial account when we continue to withdraw more than we put back and then cash in assets each year to cover the gap—eventually that account is empty. That is the direction we are headed with our use and misuse of natural resources such as our leaves.
The cumulaive power of many small actions taken over time can correct many of our current environmental problems. Deciding to keep the leaves that fall in your yard and recycle them into soil for your yard is one example that can shift us into a sustainable future.
If you live in Garland, will you love Garland and the city we are to become by recycling the leaves that fall in your yard this fall? Reserve them to nourish the plants in your yard and you help save the world for those who come after us while saving yourself some money now.
UPDATE ON NOVEMBER LEAF AWARENESS CAMPAIGN 2016
Only a few streets in the Firewheel residential are included in the following update. It is impossible (due to limited staff resources from Loving Garland Green) to cover the entire city of Garland, which covers 57 square miles. However we are confident that citizens can extrapolate from this narrow data sample the implications of horrendous waste that could easily be solved via individual responsibility. We also plan to dramatize this by displaying the bags we collect at the Garland Community Garden during the month of November. We will, however take random weekly samples from other areas of Garland.
Going forward we will calculate the weight of the bags at 30 pounds each.
Some have weighed as much as 58 pounds and others as light as 22 pounds.
PERIOD OF COLLECTION: OCT 31 – November 2
Place; Firewheel residential area
NUMBER OF BAGS COUNTED: 105
NUMBER OF BAGS RESCUED: 44
61 bags went to the landfill = 1,830 pounds almost a ton.
44 bags or 1,320 pounds went to the Garland Community Garden