Leaves, Clocks, and Overnight Parking: Your Burlington Fall-to-Winter Cheat Sheet

Fall in Burlington comes with a to-do list: rake, reset the clocks, and remember when the overnight parking ban takes effect. Here are the dates and rules in one spot, so you can set a bookmark and move on with your day.

Yard waste pickup starts the week of Oct. 19

Curbside yard waste collection begins the week of Oct. 19 and runs for six weeks, through the week of Nov. 30. Have your yard waste at the curb by 7 a.m. on Monday of your collection week.

A few rules to know:

• Use paper leaf bags or open barrels clearly marked “Yard Waste.”
• Plastic bags will not be collected.
• Don’t mix yard waste with trash or recycling. Yard waste is banned from the trash under state regulations.
• Keep leaves and grass clippings out of the street, storm drains, streams, and wetlands. Clogged drains can flood the street when it rains or as the snow melts, and as leaves break down in the water, they release phosphorus and nitrogen that feed algae blooms. Those blooms use up oxygen and can harm fish and other wildlife.

The town’s 2026 and 2027 Trash & Recycle Calendar has the full schedule. Yard waste pickup also runs the last week of June, July, August, and September, and for six weeks in the spring.

Speaking of storm drains, have you ever noticed that some of them always seems to fill up with leaves? You can help by adopting a storm drain near your home or on your daily walk. Clearing the leaves off the top before a big rain helps the water drain the way it’s supposed to, and it keeps your street from turning into a pond. It takes a few minutes, and your neighbors will thank you.

Clocks fall back Sunday, Nov. 1

Daylight saving time ends at 2:00 AM on Sunday, Nov. 1. Use a few minutes of that extra hour you gain to check your smoke detectors.

If your detectors are hard-wired into your home’s electrical system, they usually still have a backup battery for power outages, so you'll want to check them, too. Press the test button on each unit. Hard-wired detectors are typically linked, so one button should set off all of them. If some stay quiet, that’s worth a call to an electrician or the fire department.

Also look at the date printed on the back of each detector. They wear out, and the general guidance is to replace them about every 10 years.

Winter parking ban runs Dec. 1 through April 1

From Dec. 1 through April 1, parking on the street is banned from 2:00 to 8:00 AM so plows can do their work.

• First ticket: $25
• Each ticket after that: $50
• Vehicles that interfere with snow removal may be towed at the owner’s expense

That’s the fall-to-winter to-do list: bag the leaves, test the detectors, and find a place to park in December, and adopt your favorite storm drain. Know a neighbor who could use this? Send it their way.