Trimming the branches, weeding the flower beds, and raking leaves. One of these days I will get around to doing that at my house. When I do finally spruce up the yard and make it look nice I will want the dead limbs and branches to be hauled away in a timely manner. How can I make that happen and what do I need to know?

Lafayette Consolidated Government serves over 50-thousand households with yard waste pick up. Having this many customers means there has got to be some rhyme and reason to the process. The first thing you need to know is how big can your limbs be?

According to the LCG website limbs can be no longer than four feet. This is a change from an early standard that used to allow limbs of six feet. No single piece of tree may weigh more than 50 pounds. The reason the limbs need to be cut down to the shorter length is to make transportation and grinding to mulch an easier and safer process. The reasons for the weight limit are along the same lines.

Leaves and yard clippings need to be in an open container no more than 35 gallons. This is so personnel can see that the container does have yard waste. The size is limited because an actual human being has to lift this container. The container can weigh no more than 50 pounds in total.

Please note these guidelines are for natural waste only. Items such as household waste and construction debris fall under a different set of guidelines. For answers to just about any question you might have regarding what can be picked up and how to get it picked up the Lafayette Consolidated Government website is the place to go. We suggest you use the Quick Links feature and click Make Lafayette Greener and then click on Yard Waste Collection and Compost.

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