Mow and mulch leaves to feed your lawn or garden; or, dispose of leaves using Coralville yard waste bags or a bin with a yard waste sticker

What to Do with Fall Leaves
Yard waste, including fall leaves, is picked curbside on your regular garbage day until late November, weather permitting, and is available to all Coralville residences eligible for city trash and recycling services.

Coralville residents can choose from the following ways to use or dispose of fall leaves:

1. Mow and mulch / compost leaves for your own use to feed your lawn, garden, or compost. This eliminates the need to rake and bag leaves.

2. Place leaves curbside in:

• Coralville yard waste bags, available at both Coralville Hy-Vee locations (1914 8th Street and 3285 Crosspark Road), Theisen’s (100 Westcor Drive), and City Hall (1512 7th Street) for $1 each, or
• Your own 33-gallon container with an annual yard waste sticker, available at City Hall for $25.

Please note, only Coralville yard waste bags will be picked up. Other types of yard waste bags will not be accepted. When buying yard waste bags at an authorized local retailer, please make sure you get Coralville bags.

Coralville residents may also take organics (food and yard waste) to the compost facility at the Iowa City Landfill and Recycling Center (3900 Hebl Avenue SW, Iowa City). 

For more information about Coralville yard waste pickup, call 319.248.1740 or visit www.coralville.org/yardwaste.

Skip Raking & Leave the Leaves
You can use leaves to improve your lawn and decrease the use of harmful fertilizers. To skip raking and bagging leaves completely:

• Mow over your leaves and feed your lawn: Mow over your leaves without a mower bag, and let nature turn the leaves into lawn nutrients without harmful chemicals. Mow with one or more passes (if leaves are thick, you may need to spread them out first). The mower chops up the dried leaves and grass clippings and deposits them back into the turf. This saves time, feeds your lawn, eliminates the need to rake and bag leaves, improves your soil health, and supports microorganisms that live in the soil.
• Make mulch and use leaves to feed landscaping and gardens: mow your yard with the mower bag attached. Use partially-shredded leaves as mulch around gardens and landscaped areas, or rake into gardens to decompose over the winter. Some species of butterflies and moths overwinter as eggs, pupae, or adults in leaf litter.
• Recycle leaves by adding them to compost. Compost, a rich soil product made up of decomposed organic matter like yard waste and kitchen scraps, improves the soil quality of gardens, lawns, trees, plants, and shrubs.

Fall Leaf Collection Tips
When cleaning up fall leaves, please keep the following in mind:

• You can skip raking and instead use fall leaves to feed your lawn and soil.
• If you use yard waste bags, use only Coralville yard waste bags; other bags will not be picked up.
• Loose leaf piles are not collected.
• Don’t place leaves in plastic bags; they cannot be recycled.
• Don’t rake leaves into streets, ditches, or drainage ways. This can plug storm drains, carry lawn pollutants into waterways, blow leaves back into yards, and is not safe for bicyclists and pedestrians.
• Burning leaves is not permitted.

Why Coralville Picks up Bagged Leaves
Coralville picks up bagged/canned leaves instead of operating a leaf vacuum program because:

• Frequency: Coralville's leaf collection program allows for weekly, predictable collection throughout the fall season.
• Dependability: Vacuum trucks are subject to weather delays and mechanical problems.
• Safety: Containing leaves in bags/cans keeps leaf piles where they belong and reduces the amount of leaves in the gutter. Loose leaves raked to the curb can blow back into yards, clog storm drains, block the flow of stormwater runoff, and carry lawn chemicals into waterways. Leaves left at the curb that blow into the gutter can be dangerous to bicyclists and motorcyclists.