Fall is certainly a beautiful season in Champaign-Urbana — picturesque. colorful. transitional.
Fall also means falling leaves. And there’s a lot of ways to deal with that. One is to hope that the leaves will blow into your neighbor’s yard. Another way is to let the children play in the leaves as much as possible. Of course, there’s always the old-fashioned way: rake ’em up.
Lucky for us, many municipalities will haul away the leaves (and in general, landscape waste) for free, for a few weeks a year. Just buy some of those brown paper yard waste bags at any hardware/big box store, and you’re in business.
And so you know: leaf burning is prohibited in the cities of Champaign and Urbana. However, there are unincorporated areas of Champaign and Urbana that do allow leaf burning, as well as Savoy and other communities.
Champaign’s Fall Yard Waste Collection Schedule: Continues through Nov. 27. This collection is available to all residential properties within the Champaign City limits. There are four collection dates for each zone during this period. Find out which day you are supposed to put out your landscape waste via the map and list.
Urbana’s Fall 2018 Leaf Collection: Oct. 22-Nov. 30. This collection is made during Urbana residents’ regular U-Cycle pickup day. There are three weeks in this session. Limited to leaves and non-limbs only.
Rantoul Fall Leaf Collection: The Village of Rantoul will provide a scheduled collection of curbside, loose leaves beginning Oct. 15 and continuing through Nov. 30. Click on the link for info on where and when leaves will be picked up in Rantoul.
Mahomet Landscape Waste Collection: Leaf collection begins Oct. 15 and continues through Nov. 30. Click the link to see the map. There is also a schedule for brush and limb collection.
St. Joseph Fall Leaf Pickup: Oct. 15-Nov. 30. No bagging required, on a weekly basis rake your leaves to the curb and the Village Public Works Department will come by and use the vacuum on them. Do not bag your leaves.
Materials can also be taken to the Landscape Recycling Center year round. The site is located at 1210 E. University Ave. in Urbana and its phone number is (217) 344-5323. The Landscape Recycling Center is a yard waste reclamation site jointly operated by the City of Champaign, City of Urbana, and Champaign County. There is a fee for all dropped off material.