Leaves that don't sweep where have they all gone?

Photography by Wu Di Hu Lingyun

Tianjin North Network News: Entering the autumn and winter season, the fallen leaves fly with the wind, and "the golden armor is full of gold armor" has become a unique scenery in this season. After entering the winter, as the windy days increase, the leaves fall off in a large area, and the golden leaves gently fall to the ground from a high place, but such a beautiful scenery brings a lot of trouble to the sanitation workers.

"Leaves are not swept" is beautiful, but for the sake of the cleanliness of the urban environment and the convenience of citizens' travel, after enjoying the perfect scenery, sanitation workers still have to clean up the fallen leaves. Where did all these fallen leaves go? What is the way to deal with fallen leaves? With these questions in mind, the reporter interviewed the city management department of our city.

Falling leaves are hard to clear The busiest phase of the year

Nankai sanitation: the weight of the fallen leaves is light and the volume is large, and the workload is increased

"This period of leaf fall should be regarded as the most workload stage of the year. One is the long duration, from the end of October to the middle of December, more than 50 days; the second is that the leaves are difficult to clear, the road wash car can not be used, basically rely on manpower; the third is difficult to transport, the fallen leaves are light in weight, but the size is large, occupying the place, a car can not transport a few bags. On the morning of November 26, on Chengxiang Middle Road, Master Yang Guoshan, a sanitation worker at the Third Institute of Environmental Sanitation Management in Nankai District, introduced it to reporters while cleaning up fallen leaves.

A heavy snowfall on November 7 crushed the fallen leaves from the trees. Sanitation workers not only have to be busy clearing snow, but also sweep the fallen leaves, because the leaves themselves contain moisture and perishable, the leaves of flowers and trees belong to the "kitchen waste", according to the relevant requirements of garbage classification, it is necessary to separate the fallen leaves from other garbage. The fallen leaves cannot be transported with other garbage, and the piles of fallen leaves should be packed in black bags and then transported by special vehicles, which invisibly increases the workload.

Yang Guoshan along the side of the road, with a broom a little bit of the roadside leaves into a pile, the open space is good to say, catch the roadside parked vehicles, he can only crouch down, the fallen leaves under the car gently out, his movements are very careful, both afraid of scraping the car, but also afraid of triggering the alarm, alarming the owner. "Usually there is no deciduous season, usually 4:30 to start the morning sweep, 6 o'clock to finish the work, now not, almost every day to work until 7 o'clock to finish."

Wang Shulin, the head of the three ancient cultural streets in Nankai District Environmental Sanitation Management, told reporters that they were responsible for the sanitation and cleaning work around the Drum Tower and the Ancient Culture Street. The peak of this year's leaf fall has passed, but there are still poplar leaves that will not fall until half a month later, when it will need to be cleaned intensively. As long as the leaves fall, they must be cleared immediately, can not be delayed, afraid of falling leaves and other garbage mixed together is difficult to distinguish, the fallen leaves will be collected and treated separately after there will be a special extrusion truck to transport away, "Don't look at the fallen leaves are not heavy, but the volume is large, and elasticity, the extrusion car is not easy to compress, so whether it is cleaning or transportation is very troublesome." Wang Shulin said that every leaf fall season, the workload of cleaning the fallen leaves accounts for 50% of the overall workload of sanitation workers. At present, there is no particularly good way to clean the fallen leaves, mainly relying on manpower.

Wang Shulin said that the sanitation workers have feedback that the fallen leaves are difficult to clear, so they have also thought of many ways to help the sanitation workers reduce the intensity and pressure of the work. For example, they used a three-wheeled high-pressure wash truck, "This car was originally used to clean up oil on the road, and later through our research and practice, we found that this car is also very effective for cleaning up fallen leaves." Using high pressure, the fallen leaves on the road can be directly rushed to the side of the road, so that sanitation workers can easily gather the fallen leaves into piles and then bag them away. ”

Peace sanitation: 1400-1500 bags of fallen leaves are cleared every day

At 4:00 a.m., the six sanitation teams of the Urban Management Committee of Heping District took up their posts and used the morning sweeping time to clean the fallen leaves before the morning peak. The person in charge of the sanitation department said that during the day, the operation method of "sweeping and protecting" is adopted, and the cleaning tour is uninterrupted. For areas with a large amount of leaves, increase the intensity of sweeping and protection, extend the operation time, and ensure that the leaves are cleaned up in a timely manner. "The fallen leaves are dry and flammable, in order to avoid safety hazards and secondary pollution caused by the failure to clean up the fallen leaves in time." The operator collects while cleaning, collects the swept leaves in a woven bag, and transports them to the designated temporary pile of fallen leaves. "Every fallen season, the workload of sanitation workers will increase by three to four times than usual, the daily leaf removal volume reaches 1400-1500 bags, especially this winter snow, in the face of low temperatures and a large number of fallen leaves, operators should be "seamless" after completing the snow clearing task, continue to stick to the front line, in order to quickly restore the snow after the city environment, operators take turns to work, continuous operation for more than 70 hours.

Community cleaning: falling leaves "hiding" hidden dangers, clearing freight is often nearly 10,000 yuan

Since the beginning of winter, some trees in the community have died, branches are numerous, and the leaves are littered, and many fallen leaves are "hidden" in the green belt flower beds before and after the residential buildings, which not only affects the environment, but also has safety hazards, and the cleaning and transportation work is a headache for the property personnel.

The reporter saw in a large community in Hedong District that red maple leaves, yellow ginkgo biloba leaves, brown plane leaves, green poplar leaves... Not long ago, the highlight of the autumn color of the dressed community was staged, but at this time, it has been swept away by the fierce wind. Fallen leaves are barely visible on the roads of the community, while large areas of fallen leaves pile up on lawns and flower beds. The cleaning staff told reporters: "We first cleaned the fallen leaves on the road to ensure that residents travel normally." On weekdays, the cleaning work of cleaning the corridors in the community is relatively heavy, coupled with the sweeping of fallen leaves, the workload is large. ”

The manager of the residential property forest said that because the greening rate in the community is high, every year during the deciduous season, the landscape green plants will produce a large number of fallen leaves, according to the requirements of garbage classification, dead branches and fallen leaves can not be mixed with domestic garbage treatment, and the treatment of these fallen leaves needs to contact a qualified garbage removal company. The cost of processing is per car, ranging from $400 to $600 per car. In addition, in order to avoid the shade of trees affecting residents, the property company must trim the trees at least twice a year, and the dead branches and leaves that are trimmed also need to contact a professional company to clear the leaves, and the annual cost of clearing the leaves and dead branches will be nearly 10,000 yuan.

"The engineering garbage generated by the owner's decoration needs to be disposed of for at a fee, all of which are paid for by the owner, and the property contacts the clearance company." The cost of removing fallen leaves and dead branches is borne by the property company. Manager Lin said.

Where to fall leaves A variety of attempts plus independent research and development equipment

Greening department: The fallen leaves must be cleaned, and the treatment is mainly composed of fertilizer

The person in charge of the Landscaping Management Department of the Municipal Urban Management Committee told reporters that this summer there is a lot of rain in Jincheng, trees grow fast, and in the autumn and winter deciduous season, the dead branches and leaves are more than in previous years, and the treatment pressure is further increased. This year is more special, in early November there was a heavy snow, in the middle of the middle of the wind for a few days, in previous years the fallen leaves are gradually falling, this year fell faster, more concentrated. The amount of work to clear fallen leaves is several times greater than in previous years. The urban management committees of various districts are also dealing with fallen leaves according to the situation in our city. Our city is different from the southern city, the southern city water vapor is large, the leaves can fall directly on the ground without harvest, after the wind and the sun and the baptism of rain, the fallen leaves slowly rot in the soil, becoming a natural fertilizer.

Tianjin water vapor is small, fallen leaves will be drier after falling to the ground, rot can not be, if not cleaned in time, will be blown everywhere by the wind, easy to cause fire. "After two extreme weather events this year, the urban management committees of various districts began to concentrate on cleaning up fallen leaves. If it is not swept, it may cause blockages in the underground pipe network and make it difficult to dredge. In addition, the fallen leaves are lighter, and after a gust of wind, the fallen leaves may be blown onto the road, and the sanitation workers need to clean up in time. Because once it rains and snows, the fallen leaves are wet, crushed by the vehicle, and the fallen leaves are broken, and it is more difficult to clean. The person in charge said that the current treatment of fallen leaves is basically based on fertilizer, and the fallen leaves are made into organic fertilizer and used in greening projects. Exploring the reduction of landscaping waste and reducing the cost of transportation and disposal are also their new topics.

Residential property: Trying to compost the fallen leaves, but the effect is average

Light weight, large size, difficult to clean, high cost... Many communities, parks and units in our city are also facing the same problem. Mr. Zhao, the head of a property company in Nankai District, said that because there is a falling cycle of leaves in the community, the fallen leaves on the corridor will be cleaned in time, but for the leaves that fall on the lawn, the cleaning frequency will be properly controlled, usually collected once a week or two, and the fallen leaves and the lawn reflect each other, reflecting a natural beauty. "The landscape green plants in the community need to buy special fertilizer every year, which is also a big expense." A few years ago, we also explored the use of organic matter such as dead branches and leaves in the community, through composting, into nutrients, instead of fertilizer to fertilize the landscape, hoping to achieve resource recycling, but the effect is average. Mr. Zhao analyzed that organic matter composting is a microbial fermentation process, although the process is simple, but the pile has certain requirements for temperature, humidity, oxygen content, site, etc., and the composting time is relatively long, requiring professional guidance, because of the lack of these, the experimental effect is not good. However, deciduous composting is a more effective method of waste reduction and resource utilization, not simply to save the cost of deciduous disposal, and the property will make some attempts in this regard in the future, hoping to get technical support from relevant departments.

Ecological Environment Company: Organic mulch made from dead branches and leaves

The reporter saw in some parks and green spaces in Hedong District that the organic covering made of discarded dead branches and fallen leaves showed 6 colors, just like a gorgeous carpet spread under the tree, which was not only pleasing to the eye, but also played a role in dust retention and water conservation. This is a new attempt by Hedong District to reuse garden waste resources.

Manager Zhao of Meidu Ecological Environment Technology (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. said that while urban gardens beautify the urban environment, a large number of wastes such as dead branches and leaves will be generated, and the traditional treatment methods not only waste resources, but also destroy the ecological environment. Now, after collecting dead branches and leaves in Hedong District, these dead branches and leaves are reprocessed and recycled. At present, the organic cover of Hedong District has reached more than 700,000 square meters.

Manager Zhao said that they independently developed garden waste treatment equipment, probiotic technology and patented dyeing technology, and built a garden waste recycling project. The branches, bark, grass clippings and pruned garden waste are used as raw materials to make organic mulchs through collection, crushing, screening, sterilization, decomposition, dyeing and other processes, which have the functions of moisturizing, heat preservation, dust retention, and soil improvement. At the same time, the other part is converted into organic fertilizer after secondary crushing, fermentation, biotechnology and refining, which is used in urban greening, nursery production, breeding and cultivation and other fields.

It is understood that the use of dead branches, fallen leaves made of organic mulch, through manual or machine way to spread on the land, these mulching in the decomposition process can increase soil nutrients, improve soil structure, but also play the role of soil protection layer. Reducing the surface temperature difference in summer and keeping warm in winter can also prevent soil erosion. Dyeing raw materials have red, yellow, green and other 6 colors, for water-soluble biological preparations, not only environmentally friendly flame retardant is not easy to fade, but also has a superior thermal insulation and moisturizing effect, by increasing the permeability of water and water retention, reduce evaporation, so as to play a role in water saving and water retention. At the same time, some garden waste can also be converted into compost on the spot through membrane covering, pressure ventilation and oxygen control decomposition technology, which greatly reduces the cost of garbage disposal.

Manager Zhao said that the garden waste recycling project is designed to receive 300 tons of recycling per day, but now the actual amount of reception is also 30 tons, and there is a large carrying capacity.

The Stone of his mountain, the dead branches and leaves, can still be used in this way

Landscape art——

In Beijing Fengtai World Flower Grand View Garden, Xishan National Forest Park, Tongzhou City Green Heart and other places, the use of dead branches, leaves, bark, rattan and other garden waste design and production of realistic images, such as landscapes, people, animals, etc.

Build a hotel for insects to spend the winter

In some parks, you can often see "insect hotels". There are "rooms" of different sizes in the hotel, made of branches and wooden strips, where insects can hide.

Edible mushroom sticks-.

Dead branches are treated to make fungi sticks, which can be used to cultivate various edible mushrooms.

Breeding of white golden turtles

The white golden turtle is a kind of scarab beetle that likes to eat fallen leaves and has medicinal value. (Jinyun News Editor Sun Chang)

Source: Tianjin Daily