Municipal composting: it’s a win-win

In a letter to the editor last week, Narrowsburg resident Edward Magilton complained that if a back-yard burning ban is put in place in New York, there will be no reasonable way to dispose of yard waste, given that the transfer stations in Sullivan County refuse it. The county landfill in Monticello does accept such material, but Magilton rightly notes that transportation costs are prohibitive for most residents. A “garbage-pooling” plan, such as we have suggested in previous editorials on backyard burning, would mitigate but by no means eliminate the additional costs.

The most efficient way to deal with yard waste is to compost leaves and grass clippings into fertilizer, chip smaller tree limbs into mulch and cut up larger limbs for firewood. But there are many people who lack the time and the inclination to do so and/or have no need for the end products of these procedures.

The good news is that there are many people who want fertilizer, mulch and firewood but don’t generate enough yard waste to produce them in sufficient quantities to fill their needs—and can’t afford the high prices at the store. So, here we have something that one large group of people has but doesn’t want, and another large group of people wants, but doesn’t have. It seems like it ought to be fairly simple to come up with a solution that would make everybody happy.

One solution is municipal composting—a practice that is just starting to pop up all across the country. The idea is that the municipality sets up facilities that accept yard waste for free, and then composts it into fertilizer that it then sells back to the public. Our research didn’t turn up any specific discussion of tree waste, but, as noted above, most of it could be turned into wood-chip mulch with chipping machines. And, of course, with oil prices climbing, there’s a huge demand for firewood, which would take care of anything too large to chip.

Because the waste can be turned into saleable end products, the net cost to the taxpayer of a municipal composting facility is reduced or eliminated. Rapid City, SD, for instance, which recently started composting, reports that “there are no tax dollars consumed to maintain the new facility.” In the best case, an income stream could even be generated.

A feasibility study would have to be done to determine the probable cost and expected revenue stream of such a facility and whether it would, indeed, pay for itself. A wide range of sophistication could be considered: at the very simplest, facilities could collect grass clippings, leaves and tree limbs in three separate enclosures and residents could pick them up for free to use as raw material to process into fertilizer, mulch, etc. at home. At the high end of the range, the county would set up its own windrowing operations (a method of creating compost that basically consists of making a big pile, turning it and keeping it moistened) to create compost on site and do its own chipping and cutting to create mulch and firewood. To eliminate the need for bagging and associated costs, the end products could be sold in bulk, with consumers required to bring their own containers.

The only possible losers in such a scenario might be the stores that are currently selling humus and mulch and would lose business to the county if, as we would hope, the products were sold at a discount. To such businesses, we issue a challenge: how about forestalling government action by setting up such a composting operation yourselves? In fact, that’s a possibility not just for garden retailers but for farms that would like to diversify their operations, and could even use the product themselves.

In fact, there are already a few local animal farms, like Brey’s egg farm near Kenoza Lake, that compost the manure from the animals they raise and experience significant benefits. Perennial and vegetable farmers could get into the act by collecting plant waste. They’d get their raw materials for free, expand their customer base and get some great PR for their contribution to the community, all at the same time.

We don’t really care who does it, government or private. But, whenever there’s a commodity that some people have and don’t want, and others want but don’t have, there’s a transaction that can be done to everyone’s advantage. That’s what they call a win-win—so long as you don’t just bury the commodity.

Or burn it.

Dr. Punnybone

It's a Dog's Life