Agenda - Council - 08/14/1984 - Laserfiche WebLink

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i I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Page Five Yord waste (grass clippings and leaves) represents approximately 17% of the total waste stream by volume. This volume may vary depending on the season. It has been reported that in the spring and fall as much as 50% of the waste being collected in urban areas is leaves. Grass clippings represent approximately 3 to 5% of the waste stream. Composting of yard wastes is a relatively safe and simple process, requires limited equipment and manpower, and is much less costly than landfilling by comparison. However, there may be some difficulties in implementing a system. Composting is simply a matter of letting nature do its normal work with micro-organisms to reduce the yard waste to its lowest form, a beneficial soil amendment. Yard waste composting in the metropolitan area has been limited to the composting of leaves primarily because leaves represent an extremely large portion of the yard waste stream and are generated in a short period of time in large enough quantities to facilitate offering leaf compast facilities. The compasting of grass clippings is somewhat more difficult and requires more attention and may produce some odors. Methods of leaf collection for composting sites include: I) voluntary drop off; 2) separate collection by city and/or refuse haulers of bogged leaves; and 3) residents rd<lng leaves into the street on assigned days for collection by the city. Voluntca'y drop off centers for leaf composting, like drop off centers for other recyclables, to be effective must be located close to the point of leaf generation. For this reason~ it would seem most appropriate to think of terms of several col lection sites possibly related to municipal service areas (public works areas or parks). Salvaging is the process of removing materials of value by hand picking them from the mixed waste stream for later sale or reuse. Salvaging has very little impact in reducing the County's s~lid waste disposal needs. /MECHANICAL/PROCESSINa/ABA TEMENT/STRAllEGIES/ Even with the best of efforts in waste reduction and waste source separation~ there will still remain a large volume of waste in the mixed municipal waste stream which will need to be landfilled or else' processed to reduce the amount needing to be landfilled. Waste processing would include such activities as mechanical separation, shredding, baling, incineration~ biological treatment, modular combustion units, mass burning wc~ste to energy~ and refuse derived fuel.