Links
Address
Newton City Hall
1000 Commonwealth Ave
Newton Centre, MA 02459
617-796-1000
TDD/TTY 617-796-1089
Hours
Monday - Friday
8:30am-5:00pm
Tuesday
8:30am- 8:00pm
Leaf Burning is Prohibited in Newton
Consider the alternatives.
Mulching: Spread leaves beneath trees, shrubs and other landscape plants. They can also be mowed and left on the lawn to provide food for insects, earthworms and other organisms, which will provide nutrients to your plants.
Composting: You can dispose of leaves naturally in compost piles. The pile should be no smaller than three feet wide, three feet high and three feet deep to retain the heat needed for decomposition. Available space will dictate how large the pile can be although it should not exceed eight feet in height or width. The pile can be aerated by turning the material either by hand or mechanically. Leaves should be moist but not saturated for proper composting. Some leaves such as oak take longer to decompose than other leaves. Mowing leaves during collection or shredding afterwards can speed up the composting process.
Disposal: Put debris in a waste container labeled Yard Waste. These labels may be picked up at the Public Works counter at City Hall.
The smoke generated by a large number of simultaneous leaf fires can cause significant health problems. Leaf smoke can irritate the eyes, nose and throat of healthy adults. But it can be much more harmful to small children, the elderly, and people with asthma or other lung or heart diseases. This is because the visible smoke from leaf fires is made up almost entirely of tiny particles that can reach deep into lung tissue and cause symptoms such as coughing, wheezing, chest pain and shortness of breath--symptoms that might not occur until several days after exposure to large amounts of leaf smoke.
Besides being an irritant, leaf smoke contains many hazardous chemicals, including carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide binds with hemoglobin in the bloodstream and thus reduces the amount of oxygen in the blood and lungs. So carbon monoxide can be very dangerous for young children with immature lungs, smokers, the elderly, and people with chronic heart or lung diseases.