Clearing fallen autumn leaves in Bristol

The autumn leaves are falling, and Bristol Waste’s street cleansing teams are working hard to keep footpaths and roads clear across the city.

How do Bristol Waste company deal with fallen autumn leaves in Bristol?

In the first four days of Bristol Waste Company’s leaf clearance operation this autumn, the teams cleared four tonnes of leaves. That’s the same weight as a family car’s worth of leaves being collected each day.

Clearing fallen autumn leaves from pavements, roads and public walkways helps to keep the city clean and safe, but it’s a huge task. Bristol Waste’s teams cover hundreds of miles of Bristol streets each week, but this time of year can be particularly demanding as leaves fall across the city, for several weeks.

Get involved

Our street cleaning crews really appreciate residents clearing leaves from your local pavements!

Do you want to make Bristol a safer, cleaner and more sustainable city? Join the Autumn Litter Blitz for 2026! Borrow litter picking kits for free: Autumn Litter Blitz 2026 – Bristol Waste Company

If you can’t get out clearing the leaves yourself with friends and neighbours, you can also help our teams by reporting a street that needs clearing here.

Book your free litter picking kit

You can borrow litter picking kits from us, for free! Visit this page to get started: Litter picking kits – Bristol Waste Company

Order litter bags for the leaves you collect

You can order extra litter bags for the leaves you collect: Request extra bags for your litter pick – Bristol Waste Company

What happens to the fallen leaves that are collected?

The leaves our teams and residents collect up are send to Avonmouth to be processed for energy recovery.

Unfortunately, leaves that have been collected from roads and pavements will be contaminated with petrol and diesel from vehicles, plastic litter and other chemicals. This means they can’t be composted.

Processing the contaminated leaves as general waste is the best solution.

However, if you’re collecting leaves from your garden, why not compost them at home? If you have one, you can also put them into your garden waste bin to be composted with other garden waste.