DeKalb residents will soon have a place to dispose of their landscape waste.

Beginning April 6, and until Dec. 1, residents will be able to put their landscape waste out on their regular recyclable collection day, said Cameron Davis, administrative assistant of the DeKalb Public Works Department.

He said on that day, two trucks will pass through neighborhoods, one collecting recyclables and the other collecting landscape waste.

Davis said once the landscape waste program begins, he would like to remind residents not to place landscape materials out in plastic bags or cardboard boxes. He said plastic bags jam the composting equipment and cardboard boxes break apart when dampened by morning dew.

Davis suggests either a thirty-gallon metal refuse can, a thirty-gallon paper landscape waste bag, which is compostable and can be found at most hardware stores, or a ninety-gallon cart which can be rented from DeKalb County Disposal.

Residents who wish to dispose of twigs and branches must cut all branches down to lengths no more than four feet and must not have diameters greater than three inches.

These branches must be tied together with string or baler’s twine in bundles no heavier than fifty pounds.

Davis said there is no limit to the amount of bundles residents can put out for collection.

He said this is the third year this program has been implemented in DeKalb.

“It is a state-mandated program begun because of state

legislation passed outlawing the burying of landscape waste in landfills,” he said.

The landscape collection is an ongoing program, he said, that is part of a waste management agreement with DeKalb County Disposal.

Davis said he encourages those who wish to dispose of their landscape waste before the collection program begins to take their debris to the DeKalb County Disposal Facility on Simonds Avenue in DeKalb. There will be a marked drop-off container available there from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m.