Green Intentions?

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Composting is most profitable, but biofuel and cogeneration are rising in stature. Some cities are co-composting yard waste with food-contaminated paper, which can boost the quality of the compost. But cutting production costs should take precedence, says Hicks, the city’s integrated waste planning manager. “Right now, I think we’re all trying to move closer to stabilizing our costs (rather) than making a profit.”

Public and private entities still have a long way to go to be viable financially, but as landfills keep filling, both will find a way to make the alternative methods work, says R3 Consulting Group’s Tagore-Erwin. “Saving the environment is the official reason behind green-waste recycling, but the actual process will be driven by economics.”

Follow your yard waste from the lawn to the city’s compost pile

How to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle Your Yard

Getting a municipality to value green-waste recycling is one thing; getting residents to value it is another. Local government says educating the public is a major challenge with yard-waste recovery.

“We don’t have a problem with people putting their waste in plastic bags instead of the bins, but we do have a problem with them dumping excess garbage in with the yard trimmings,” says Sacramento County’s Paul Philleo. “That trash contaminates green waste, and then it all has to be thrown into the garbage. Dealing with the contamination can hike our green-waste recovery costs.”

Here are a few more ways you can recycle your green waste, thus reducing your local government’s cost burden.

Practice “grasscycling”

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