Eindhoven, a small city in the south of the Netherlands, is encouraging the small town's more than 220,000 residents to give up their blowers and rakes and let the leaves fall loose in their gardens or parks. Because doing so is good for the environment.

According to the British newspaper The Guardian 24, city council spokesman Martin van Gessel said they are trying to change people's ideas about the environment in public spaces. "For a long time, people have been convinced that grass always has to be mowed, leaves have to be collected and everything has to look neat", said Van Gessel, "but in parks, we should let the leaves lie down."

From an ecological point of view, the value of fallen leaves is comparable to gold. The manager of a landscaping company says he sometimes has to explain to people about the practice of keeping fallen leaves, "You let the natural environment take its course and you find that not only is it good for ecology and biodiversity, but there are fewer weeds and less need for water in the summer. It improves the whole environment."

The city council has also placed 200 "leaf baskets" throughout the city, where residents can place leaves from the ground that the city will then collect and use as compost for the city's plants next spring.

However, many European countries have leaf removal regulations. Deutsche Telekom News reported that many places in Germany stipulate that each home must clear the leaves in front of the house, otherwise, the city administration will issue a ticket to the owner, the maximum possible fine of tens of thousands of euros.

These seemingly insignificant leaves, but has a high recycling value.

Proper disposal of leaves, more environmental protection, and economic benefits of a win-win situation. Compared to the traditional landfill method, and incineration method, the new composting method, on the one hand, does not take up a lot of land, can reduce leachate, incineration gas, and other secondary pollution, to avoid harming tree roots, fire, and other hidden dangers; on the other hand, composting to produce fertilizer, but also save a lot of costs.

In addition to the centralized processing of compost, there are many areas also combined with the actual, to explore other effective ways to deal with fallen leaves. For example, some parks will be processed leaves, made into landscaping art exhibits to enrich the landscape, but also to guide the public to pay attention to environmental protection; some places use leaves to provide habitats for insects and other small wildlife; other places to mix food waste and leaves in proportion to compost so that the two waste complement each other to accelerate the composting process.

Dealing with small fallen leaves is not a simple matter. It requires the support and updating of technical means and the active cooperation of all sectors of society. We expect more similar problems to be solved effectively and more and more such attempts to be made.