Ben van Buiten: Trash on the Street
Trash on the Street: Panic Over Falling Leaves
Ben van Buiten walks around outside, takes in what he comes across, and forms his own opinions about it. Sometimes big, sometimes small, often just enough to make him pause for a moment.
Fall has begun. It’s the season of color, cappuccinos, and crunchy leaves. It’s wonderful—as long as they’re not lying right outside our front door. Because as soon as the first leaf falls, panic sets in.
With some 25,000 trees in our municipality, the task is clear: every leaf must be removed—preferably before it hits the ground. That’s why the leaf bins will be set up again starting in October. Put the leaves in—nothing else.
Simple, right? Apparently not. Branches, yard waste, flower pots, sand, and entire bushes end up in there—as long as there’s even a single leaf on them. The leaf bin as a free recycling center: creative, but not what it’s meant for.
And now the future of the leaf bins is also on the municipal agenda. This year, they’re still there as usual. But maybe having fewer leaf bins isn’t such a bad idea after all. In some places, we deliberately leave leaves on the ground. They protect the soil, nourish soil life, and provide shelter for insects. Nature calls that a cycle. We’re quick to call it trash.
Maybe we need to learn again that green doesn’t necessarily mean clean. So go ahead and enjoy the pile of leaves this year. Feel free to rake, sweep, and shovel. But not everything on the street needs to be cleared away right away. Sometimes it’s just fall. Or, okay, gold leaf.
Ben van Buiten concludes with an observation that will likely never make it past the final editing stage of a policy paper, but is nonetheless true: we’d like to live surrounded by nature, but preferably without insects, mud, pollen, acorns, leaves, or other bothersome side effects of nature. In reality, we don’t want nature; we want a backdrop. Preferably one that’s maintenance-free and comes with an “off” switch for the seasons.
The outdoors doesn’t follow a schedule. This means new situations arise every day in public spaces. If you see something that doesn’t look right, you can easily report it using the BuitenBeter app. That way, we can all help keep things in order outdoors.