WEST HILLS : City Offers Lessons in Lawn Composting

Ever wonder what to do with those garbage bags of grass cuttings, leaves and brush clippings?

Instead of chucking them, the folks at the recycling and waste reduction division of the Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation would like to teach you how to compost your yard trimmings so they can be used to fertilize your lawn.

Today, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at the Orcutt Ranch Horticultural Center in West Hills, the sanitation bureau and the Department of Recreation and Parks is sponsoring one in a series of free back yard composting workshops.

“We have a mandate from the city of Los Angeles to reduce the amount of material that goes into the landfills by 50% by the year 2000,” said David Mays, a division spokesman.

Currently, the sanitation department will pick up one 60-gallon container of yard trimmings per household each year. That also is made into compost.

“A lot of people produce more than that and composting is a more convenient and less expensive way of disposing of them,” Mays said.

The workshop will offer instructions for composting, discounted bins and free samples of compost that the city creates with the trimmings it collects.

The Orcutt Ranch Horticultural Center located at 23555 Justice St.