Each year, the city of Kent collects brush for residents, and this year, fall

collection begins Oct. 4.

“Once October gets here we run through and we clean everything up,” said

Gerald Shanley, city arborist and supervisor for the maintenance department.

Overall, Shanley said the volume of brush collected from year to year has been

pretty consistent, and he attributes this to the City Yard Waste Transfer

Site on Plum Street available to residents seven days a week.

Shanley said they try to get down each street three times during the collection

period, and said brushes will always be picked up as long as they are laid out in time for collection, stacked properly and not littered with foreign debris. Anything other than yard waste is considered foreign debris.

Sheri Chestnutwood, administrative assistant to the service director, said properly placing brush for collection means making sure brush is close to the curb, but not blocking the sidewalk or street. Cut ends of branches should be facing the street as well. Any brush that is too long can be set lengthwise, she added.

Shanley said the city has three brush chippers for the collection process and will

use two for the actual collection. 

Brush collection has also created a collaboration between the city and Kent State to combine some of the chipped brush on campus. This brush will eventually be recycled into mulch for landscaping the campus. 

The city will give Kent State as much of the brush from collection as the university

wants for the campus.

This keeps the city’s volume of brush at the Plum Street site down as well as supplies the university with recycled mulch. 

“It helps us out by not having to overload our site because we have so many

residents who use it,” Shanley said. 

The only cost associated with the collection is the normal labor of an eight-hour

workday for the four employees who do the collecting and the cost of fuel for the

two brush chippers they will be using, Shanley said. 

Residents living on streets in the Northeast and Southeast sections of the city

can expect brush collection to come to their homes until Oct. 15.

Residents living on streets in the Northwest and Southwest sections can expect

to have the pick-up at their homes between Oct. 18 and Oct. 29. 

Contact Suzi Starheim at [email protected].