To the Editor:

For decades, Princeton has deployed the same controversial leaf and yardwaste collection policy. The logic goes that homeowners and landscape crews can conveniently pile leaves and yardwaste on the streets, which the town then collects and composts outside of town. But there’s also considerable illogic at work. The illogic plays out in many ways: expense, confusing schedules, the hazards of blocked traffic and bike lanes, global warming gases from all the mechanized scraping, hauling, vacuuming, and composting, substantial nutrient runoff into streams, impoverished and hardened urban soils, bias against homeowners on busy or narrow streets, widespread ordinance violations, and a scarred streetscape. And did I mention the annoying, interminable groan of leafblowers as landscape crews eviscerate a client’s yard of every last leaf in order to create a street hazard?

There’s nothing malicious here, just as we mean no harm by each contributing to the collective radicalization of the planet’s climate while keeping our homes comfortable, running errands, or visiting grandma. The road to hell is paved with unintention.

As with climate change, most of the downsides from current leaf/yardwaste policy come from a lack of containerization — the use of public space as a dumping ground. As a culture, we curbed this impulse long ago by containerizing trash and recyclables. Visitors from the west coast, where yardwaste is also containerized, are baffled by our messy streetscapes. Cities with tree cover similar to ours, like Durham, N.C. and Ann Arbor, Mich, also require containerization, using a combination of yardwaste bags and convenient roll-out containers.

The ongoing debate over Princeton’s leaf/yardwaste policy has remained paralyzed by two opposing contentions. First is the common claim that homeowners couldn’t possibly utilize all their leaves in their yards. But those massive piles of leaves are mostly fluff. A more optimistic claim comes from the Princeton Environmental Commission (PEC), which contends that containerization combined with a “leave the leaves” approach would be sufficient for the vast majority of households.

I used to think that better education would solve the problem. As a former PEC member, I wrote Princeton’s Guide to Leaf Management, available online. But calls for better education put the onus on environmentalists to somehow get the word out, and mere words cannot compete with the overwhelming visual. What people see and imitate is leaves piled in the street, not the largely invisible backyard composting and mowing of leaves back into the lawn.

Guesstimates put the cost of current policy at close to $1 million per year. Our policy stalemate could prove even more costly in the future, as Princeton is considering spending millions more to put a roof over its armada of leaf collection vehicles. Before we enshrine a collection policy with so many downsides, we deserve a full accounting of all direct and indirect costs, and test alternatives. I call on Princeton to mount a leaf management “challenge” in which a group of homeowners who claim that loose leaf collection is necessary agree to manage their leaves/yardwaste for a year with leaf corrals, mulch mowing, and containerized collection.

It’s time we use our resourcefulness and adaptability to find solutions, rather than endure year after year the downsides of current policy.

Stephen K. Hiltner

North Harrison Sreet