Read this before setting those raked leaves ablaze
Leaves blanket your lawn. What’s a home owner to do? Grab the rake or leaf blower? Sure.
But get out the gas can and a match? State environmental officials say “Please don’t.”
Officials at the Indiana Department of Environmental Management are instead urging Hoosiers to turn those leaves into mulch.
The reason is simple. Burning leaves creates clouds of acrid smoke. That’s bad news for neighborhood air quality and for those already suffering from respiratory health problems.
Mulching, says IDEM spokesman Dan Goldblatt, is a much better alternative. Turning those leaves into mulch, “can be good for your lawn and garden later on in the year.”
“It’s really beneficial to everybody,” Goldblatt said. “And it doesn’t create particulates in the air.”
Plus, depending on where you live, burning leaves is illegal. IDEM enforces air-quality rules — including strict bans on leaf burning — in Lake, Porter, Floyd and Clark counties, based on federal mandates in place to deal with air pollution.
Other municipalities set their own rules.
For instance, it’s illegal to burn leaves in Marion County. After receiving leaf-burning complaints at the Mayor’s Action Center, code enforcement officials will pay a visit to a violator, followed by written warnings and $50 citations to offenders who keep burning, said Adam Baker, a city code enforcement spokesman.
From Nov. 10 to Dec. 5, the Department of Public Works allows each household to place up to 40 bags of leaves by the curb for weekly pickup.
In places in Indiana where leaf burning is legal, Goldblatt said those who still feel the need to burn should do so only in a well-vented container (a burn barrel doesn’t count) with a screen on top. Goldblatt said you should never burn trash.
Call Star reporter Ryan Sabalow at (317) 444-6179. Follow him on Twitter: @ryansabalow.