Everything You Need to Know About Fall Leaf Collection in Royal Oak

The leaves will be falling soon in Royal Oak, and here’s everything you need to know about the city’s fall leaf collection program.

Leaf collection won’t begin until early November to ensure that most of the leaves have fallen. The city will use 13 dump trucks, two sweepers and a front-end loader with a clam bucket to cover the 212 miles of city streets twice during the pickup season.

Once they’re collected, the leaves will be turned into humus-rich compost at the Southeast Oakland County Resource Recovery Authority compost facility in Rochester Hills. The compost is free to residents in SOCRRA member communities, including Royal Oak, for use as mulch.

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Here are some tips and things to keep in mind:

• Park cars off the street during on the day that your street is scheduled, because cars at curbside can slow the trucks and impede leaf collection. Trucks need at least a “house length” after a parked car to get near the curb.

• Before raking leaves to the curb, know when your street is scheduled for pickup.
• Plastic bags are no longer acceptable for yard waste, including leaves. Use the appropriate containers.
• Rake only leaves into the roadway in windrows, leaving 3-4 inches at the curb for water drainage.
• Do not make the rows larger than 3 feet high and 4 feet wide.
• Do not put yard waste other than leaves in the street.
• All sticks, rocks and other debris must be kept out of leaf piles. They can damage propellers in the leaf vacuums, which knock them out of commission and cause downtime.
• If the City does run ahead of schedule, a truck will be by on your regularly scheduled day.
• Schedules are subject to change due to weather conditions, mechanical breakdowns or other factors beyond the city’s control.

From the city’s website, here are maps and schedules for the fall leaf collection program:

Week 1

• 11/02/15: 11 Mile To 12 Mile - Woodward To Main
• 11/03/15: 11 Mile To 12 Mile - Main To Campbell
• 11/04/15: Lincoln To 11 Mile - Woodward To Campbell
• 11/05/15: 10 Mile To Lincoln - West City Limits To Campbell
• 11/06/15: 10 Mile To 12 Mile - Campbell To Stephenson

Week 2

• 11/09/15: 12 Mile To 13 Mile - Main To Campbell
• 11/10/15: 13 Mile To North City Limits - Main To Campbell
• 11/11/15: 12 Mile To 13 Mile - Crooks To Main
• 11/12/15: 12 Mile To 13 Mile - Woodward To Crooks
• 11/13/15: 13 Mile To Normandy - Woodward To Main
• 11/14/15: Webster To Normandy - Greenfield To Woodward (Saturday)

Week 3

• 11/16/15: Normandy To N. City Limits - Greenfield To Crooks
• 11/17/15: Catalpa To 12 Mile - Woodward To Main
• 11/18/15: 11 Mile To Catalpa - Woodward To Main
• 11/19/15: 11 Mile To Gardenia - Main To Campbell
• 11/20/15: Gardenia To 12 Mile - Main To Campbell And 11 Mile
• 11/20/15: To 12 Mile - Campbell To Stephenson

Week 4

• 11/23/15: 10 Mile To 11 Mile - West City Limits To Main
• 11/24/15: Lincoln To 11 Mile - Main To Campbell
• 11/25/15: 10 Mile To 11 Mile - Campbell To Stephenson
• 11/26/15: Happy Thanksgiving – No Collection
• 11/27/15: 10 Mile To Lincoln - Main To Campbell

Week 5

• 11/30/15: 12 Mile To 13 Mile - Rochester To Campbell
• 12/01/15: 12 Mile To North City Limits - Main To Rochester
• 12/02/15: 12 Mile To 13 Mile - Crooks To Main
• 12/03/15: 12 Mile To Webster - Woodward To Crooks
• 12/04/15: Webster To 13 Mile - Greenfield To Crooks

Week 6

• 12/07/15: 13 Mile To 14 Mile - Greenfield To Woodward
• 12/08/15: 13 Mile To 14 Mile - Woodward To Coolidge
• 12/09/15: Normandy To North City Limits - Coolidge To Crooks
• 12/10/15: 13 Mile To Normandy - Coolidge To Main
• 12/11/15: 13 Mile To North City Limits - Rochester To Campbell

Here’s a video from the city explaining more about the program.

» Patch file photo