The City of St. Louis has one of the most robust street cleaning programs in the United States with 1,100 miles of roads swept monthly. Since this program is so robust, the Streets Department is combining leaf pickup and regularly scheduled street cleaning as of November 1, 2016.
Every street in the City will receive the same equitable services on regularly scheduled street cleaning days from November 1st through December 31st.
The City will pickup normal street cleaning debris and any leaves that have fallen from City trees if they are placed in the street approximately a foot and a half away from the curb on regularly scheduled street cleaning days. Please remove any limbs, cardboard boxes, plastic bags, etc. from these piles, as these items can damage the equipment. If your neighborhood does not have street cleaning signs, please check out the map on the Street Divisions Website.
Depending on the quantity of leaves, specialized equipment may be used that collects leaves and turns them into mulch, which then can be used for compost. If the quantities are less, a street sweeper may be the only equipment needed. In both cases, a street sweeper will be the last equipment used to make sure that the street is as clean as possible.
Please place remaining leaves from your yard in alley yard waste dumpsters or in roll carts, depending on which one is in your neighborhood. If using roll carts and additional space is needed, please use paper yard waste bags and place them in the tree-lawn on your regularly scheduled yard waste collection day. It is recommended that leaves be mulched with either a push mower with a bagging attachment or a blower/mulcher prior to placing in your dumpster, as this can reduce 10 normal bags of yard waste to just one bag of yard waste. Alternatively, you can also use this mulch in your garden or flower bed.
The Benefits to Everyone:
- Everyone will receive the same outstanding service.
- Vehicles should be moved per street cleaning signs, so that the entire street can be cleaned from corner to corner.
- Crews will make up holidays*. Before, if your leaf pickup was on a holiday, you simply missed a pickup. Now Streets will reschedule. Since no-parking signs cannot be changed to represent the holiday, parking will be an issue on the rescheduled date, but we will make an attempt.
Citizens’ Service Bureau:
- If your street was scheduled for street cleaning and you do not believe that it was swept, call 622-4800.
- If there are cars parked on your street that haven’t moved since the last street cleaning day, call 622-4800.
- If you notice any other City-related issues like potholes, street lights out or trees needing trimmed, call 622-4800.
*Holiday Schedule:
- Veteran’s Day November 11th, will be made up on Saturday November 12th;
- Thanksgiving November 24th, will be made up on Saturday November 26th;
Christmas (Observed Holiday) December 26th, will be swep