As municipalties include yard wastes such as grass clippings, prunings,
weeds and brush to curbside recycling programs the need arises to find a
place to recycle it. In our area, Central California, municipalities are
willing to even pay for trucking the waste to farms and composting
facilities.
What is the general feeling of you SANETers about;
1) Using yard waste in farming systems.
2) Using uncomposted yard waste as a mulch in organic orchards and other crop
systems.
3) Using composted yard wastes as organic fertilizor.
Is there any direct evidence that potential heavy metal and pesticide
contaminents are eliminated in the composting process?
I personally do not want to use this material on my farm. I feel it is
risky and extremely hard to test on a regular basis. However, my
environmental conscience would like to see this material recycled and feel it
is good for ornamental landscaping only. Convince, if you can, that I am
wrong.
I would be very interested to hear from any certifying agencies grappling
with the potential benefits and risks of using these materials.
Thomas Wittman