County to Seek Ways to Recycle Organic Matter

In another move to prolong the life of the county’s four landfills, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a plan Tuesday to look at alternative ways to dispose of the 700,000 tons of vegetation thrown away each year in Orange County.

Some of the alternatives of getting rid of the grass, trees, limbs, bushes and leaves include shredding them for landfill cover or converting them into compost to be used for topsoil or fertilizer for lawns. The county could sell or give away the compost, depending on the demand.

Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, who sponsored the measure, said yard clippings are 18% to 30% of the residential trash in the county. He said the organic material can be converted into a useful product that can be used for soil enrichment, thus keeping millions of cubic yards of material out of landfills and extending their use.

Frank R. Bowerman, director of the county’s waste management program, said that if the county decided to go to composting, part of the landfills could be set aside for piling the shredded green waste. It could then be aerated periodically when turned over by machines, and when matured could be hauled away to create topsoil for parks, playgrounds and public landscaping.

Just this fall, Fairfield, Conn., opened a $3-million composting center.

Bowerman said a major problem is keeping the yard clippings separate from other trash. In Seattle, the city provides containers for organic waste, which are picked up at curbside by special trucks with mechanical arms.

That could cost each resident $1 or $2 per pickup, Bowerman said, but the county might provide residents with free dump sites if they hauled the waste themselves.

So far this year, the supervisors have approved a program for curbside separation and collection of recyclable materials, which is under way in several cities, and called for a study on how to dispose of nearly two million old rubber tires that reach the landfills each month.

Vasquez said that since the study was begun, a company in Arizona and another in Mexico have expressed interest in taking the car and truck tires.

He praised the Board of Supervisors for being on the “front end of progress” in trying to solve a major problem created by “a throwaway society.”

Vasquez also asked the supervisors Tuesday to review purchasing policies because the county needs to be “in the forefront of developing new markets for recyclables by revising our own purchasing habits.”