Old Waste to End Up in Yards

In an unusual turn of events, city residents last week welcomed the return of some of their garbage.

The waste once was tons of lawn clippings, leaves and garden trimmings from Villa Park. It was recycled into commercial compost, and processor Scotts Co. has given away 25 tons of it for local gardeners--as much as 60 gallons a household.

The city’s commercial trash collector, Villa Park Disposal, coordinated the compost giveaway. The company is a division of the Anaheim-based Taormina Industries.

“We did this as a way of saying ‘thank you’ to residents for their strong support of recycling and also as a way of closing the loop--bringing it back . . . so it could be used again,” said Lori Rolleri, director of corporate communications for Taormina Industries.

Rolleri said Villa Park residents divide their trash among three containers: one for general garbage, one for material recyclables such as aluminum cans and glass, and one solely for green waste. The green waste is converted by Scotts into commercial compost.

If the city did not have the recycling program, tons of green waste would be dumped into county landfills, Rolleri said. “It would not only reduce the size of landfills quicker, but it also would be producing methane gas, which adds to the global warming.”

Villa Park is now among the top cities in the United States in trash recycling, Rolleri said. “Sixty percent of the city’s residential waste is now recycled,” she said. “Villa Park has done exceptionally well.”