Experts say cities nationwide have found simple and environmentally friendly ways to dispose of yard waste, but few of them would be practical in Tulsa, the city's trash operators say.
"What you'll find when you really start talking about all of these different cities, ... generally there's a certain niche in their cities or in their economy where they're able to do different things, like compost," Tulsa Interim Solid Waste Manager Roy Teeters said.
National experts told the Tulsa World that difficulties disposing of yard waste are not necessarily unique to Tulsa, but several of them said they were surprised by the way Tulsa has chosen to handle yard waste - burning it in a trash incinerator.
That method is inefficient and clearly less environmentally desirable than more common methods around the country, such as composting, they said.
"I think it's an embarrassment, especially in a farming and ranching area of the country," said Jerry Powell, editor of the Portland, Ore.-based publishing company Resource Recycling, Inc. "Burning organic resources is a waste."
Tulsa has taken yard waste to its Covanta Energy trash-to-energy plant like regular garbage almost since the October launch of its new trash and recycling program, which originally intended to separate the material from garbage and mulch it at the city's existing green waste site for re-use.
Like Tulsa, cities across the country have taken steps to separate yard waste from other garbage because they have realized that yard waste can be a valuable commodity for use in land reclamation, gardening, farming, water filtration and other practices, experts said.
The difference with Tulsa seems to be that it has asked residents to leave yard waste in plastic bags instead of more practical containers and that it intended to mulch the material, or grind it up, instead of compost it, or slowly decompose it into a soil-like material.
Tulsa began diverting yard waste from its green waste mulching site once it realized that equipment there could not separate the material from the plastic bags in which residents are asked to place it.
Chaz Miller, state programs director for Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Industry Associations, said it's uncommon for cities to use plastic bags in yard waste for that very reason, and that many cities actually forbid it.
Carts, bins and large bio-degradable paper bags are standard among most municipal yard waste disposal programs, experts said.
Using such containers "eliminates the problem associated with having to break open bags," said Lori Scozzafava, director of the U.S. Composting Council.
Tulsa's trash operators say the city chose plastic bags because several reputable companies assured them that certain equipment could remove the bags.
In Tulsa's case, a Vermeer brand "trommel screen" designed to separate objects of different sizes left chunks of plastic entangled with twigs.
The city's green waste site does not have the permits necessary to store anything but yard waste, so any contamination by plastic would not be allowed, Teeters said.
The city of Norman, however, has operated a successful yard waste program for years using plastic bags because trash operators remove the bags at the curb, Norman Utilities Director Ken Komiske said.
It takes only slightly longer to remove the bags than it would to throw them in the truck, he said.
Teeters said Tulsa considered manually removing bags both at the curb and at the green waste site, but that neither seemed plausible.
At the curb, workers might have to spend several minutes removing a bag, which would require putting out traffic cones, risking collisions with passing vehicles and possibly necessitating more workers to make up for the slower routes, he said.
A brief effort to remove bags at the green waste site proved too time-consuming and even unhealthy, as workers were finding items such as dirty diapers and dead animals in yard waste bags, Teeters said.
As for paper bags, he said such a method is friendlier for programs that compost, rather than mulch. Mulching paper bags would contaminate the product with paper shreds, he said.
The city's mulch, made from waste left at the green waste site by residents and contractors, is used for gardening, soil enrichment and land reclamation at sites such as abandoned strip mines.
"We were concerned if we used paper bags that we'd be producing a product that nobody wants," Teeters said. "Then you'd have to take it to the landfill. You'd have to take it to Covanta."
Tulsa's trash operators have suggested a subscription-based green waste cart system to bypass the bag-mulching problem, but buying new carts is expensive, they warn.
And then there's composting.
Not only is that probably the most common way for municipal trash programs to deal with yard waste, but many cities now compost yard and food waste together, said Lisa Skumatz of Skumatz Economic Research Associates, which regularly collects data on municipal waste disposal.
Numerous states and cities even ban yard waste from their trash streams altogether, she said.
The most obvious benefit is that it reduces the trash that must be burned or buried, and it's commonly believed that yard waste increases carbon dioxide emissions in trash incinerators and gasses in landfills, Scozzafava said.
In Norman, yard waste is mulched and then taken to a composting site, where it decomposes over about 100 days and produces a material that is donated to residents.
"There's no downside," Komiske said. "It takes it out of the landfill. Our customers are really happy with it."
Teeters said Tulsa has never pursued composting because it hasn't been needed. The city has been able to fill market demands for land reclamation with wood chips and mulched material from the green waste site, whereas that doesn't seem to work in other cities, he said.
But even though composting would allow Tulsa to use the biodegradable paper bags, it seems implausible as a solution to its immediate problem, he said.
"Those (compost) facilities and running those facilities is very expensive," he said. "It's not something you just decide to start doing. You have to study it, you have to design it, construct it, and you have to get permits."
In Norman's experience, one of the only significant permitting restrictions is that the "mulchy soup" that seeps out of the compost pile must have somewhere to drain during rain, Komiske said.
"It has to meet certain regulations that aren't that difficult, really," he said.
Future of Tulsa yard waste
The city's trash staff have suggested three ways to reform or eliminate the city's green waste program. The trash board will consider them in coming months.
Option No. 1:
- Voluntary cart-based system
Green waste carts offered on subscription basis; Existing city crews deliver contents to green waste site for mulching
Pros: True recycling of yard waste; maintains original intent; Keeps city crews, who can be used for disaster response such as after recent windstorm
Cons: Cost of buying carts; Difficult keeping customers from placing other garbage in carts; Abandoning pay-as-you-throw in favor of flat fee
Option No. 2:
As Mayor Dewey Bartlett has proposed, a contracted hauler transports yard waste to trash-to-energy plant; Existing city crews eliminated or repurposed
Pros: Customers already putting large amounts of yard waste in trash carts; simplifies program; one set of crews for garbage, recycling and green waste if current trash hauler wins bid
Cons: Possible contract change with current hauler, which may open city up to lawsuits; reduces disaster response by eliminating city crews; could mean rate changes
Option No. 3:
Trash customers would not be allowed to dispose of yard waste and would have to mulch or compost at home; Existing city crews eliminated or repurposed.
Pros: Most sustainable; keeps yard waste out of incinerator
Cons: Eliminates curbside green waste pickup; may be least-appealing option for customers
Zack Stoycoff 918-581-8486
zack.stoycoff@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Yard waste: A tough issue
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