9-27-84 Agenda & Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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J IL AMSE Y COUNTY ''` BRIEFING PAPER LEAF COMPOSTING Solid waste has become a problem in Ramsey County. Each year approximately 414,000 tons of trash are generated by county residents, business, and industry. Most of that goes to landfills in Anoka and Dakota counties. The space available to Ramsey County in those landfills is rapidly running short: it will he filled by 1990. New landfills are difficult to site, costly to operate, and Ramsey County has very little suitable land in which to put one. This solid waste dilemma is upon us , and requires immediate action. In 1980 the Minnesota Waste Management Act directed metropolitan counties to address the dilemma by proposing ways to reduce waste going to landfills . Ramsey County developed a landfill abatement proposal and suggested a three pronged approach. The first, 1111 waste reduction, will attempt to decrease the volume of waste that is generated . Recycling and yard waste composting comprise the second approach. The final abatement approach is resource recovery: burning waste to recover energy. The first two are considered low-technology, they require minimal capital costs. Resource recovery will require construction of a waste-to-energy facility, the feasibility of this approach is currently under study. Approximately 62, 000 tons of yard waste are generated in Ramsey County each year . Fallen leaves make up about 8% of that, the remainder is grass clippings, brush, etc. Most of this is bagged by homeowners , and taken by waste haulers to be buried in landfills . Yet yard waste is not well suited for landfilling : It does not compress well, and therefore uses up increasingly scarce space; it decomposes slowly; and it does not become anything useful . Yard waste does not belong in landfills , and there is a better alternative available -- composting. Composting is the natural process of breaking down organic materials into humus -- a dark , earthy smelling part of soil. Composting speeds up the natural process, but the technology is the same that nature has used for millions of years . In that process organisms break up the organic material by feeding on it -- they gradually change plants into soil . Composting is the 1111 recycling of nutrients and minerals from plants back into soil. A lot of things can be composted: leaves , grass clippings, sawdust, vegetable scraps, wood ash are just a few. Composting can be done on a small scale in backyards , or on a large scale at