With a little planning, your lawn waste doesn’t need to go to waste
Fall has fallen, making for a hefty amount of yard waste to dispose of. From leaves to branches and even yard clippings from that end-of-season lawn mowing, when all is said and done, many residents are finding themselves waist deep in disposable earth.
But is it really disposable? Is there something you can do to make all that organic matter into something useful?
According to Jud Lowe, Foreman at the Payson City Landfill, yard waste can be recycled into garden mulch. In fact, the landfill has state-of-the-art machinery that can grind even the largest logs down into wood chips and fine, garden mulch.
“The city landfills allows residents to bring their secured loads of green waste free of charge, so we can grind it into mulch,” Lowe said. “This is a great way to turn some of your yard waste into something reusable.”
While this is a great service the city and surrounding cities offer, Lowe wants to remind residents that not all green waste is treated equally.
“Many residents will bring in garden waste, like their old zucchini plants, weeds and even food waste,” Lowe said. “The problem is, we can’t put that stuff into our mulch piles because of the seeds and because it clogs up our machines. We don’t have the ability to kill the seeds before they germinate, and then we can’t sell a clean mulch to residents who want it. Nobody wants mulch full of weed and other random seeds that will grow come spring.”
Lowe recognizes the need for a place to compost other matter like fruits, vegetables and other food waste, but says that right now, the city landfill isn’t that place. If brought in as green waste, those items, he said will be put into the construction pile and buried, and cannot be recycled.
In order to make sure that your yard waste is recycled in the green waste section of the landfill to be turned into wood chips or mulch, Lowe said that residents need to sort it out before bringing it in. Additionally, loads that are not clean yard waste, will be weighed and charged accordingly.
“We are our own worst enemies,” he said. “If you gather all your garden waste with yard waste, including dirt and garbage and expect it to be ground into clean mulch, it’s not going to happen. With all the stuff we have coming in on a daily basis, we can’t sort through it all, and it will end up in the construction pile and buried.”
Lowe suggests that residents who want to participate in the free green waste program, bring only branches, twigs, leaves and grass clippings in a secured load free from bags. Flowers, weeds, garden waste, dirt -- things with seeds -- will not be accepted as green waste at this time.
For information on your own city’s green waste programs, contact the cities directly.