Composting & More
There are many benefits to recycling your leaves and grass at home, rather than putting them at the curb for collection. The benefits include:
- Adding slow-release, organic nutrients to the soil;
- Preventing nutrient runoff to county waterways by reducing the use of fast-release, non-organic fertilizers;
- Adding organic material to the soil to improve porosity resulting in reduced quantities of runoff; and
- Improving water-holding capacity of the soil to reduce the need to water the lawn or garden.
It's easy to recycle leaves and grass. Try one of the following:
- As leaves fall, run a mulching lawn mower over your yard, chopping the leaves to a fine texture. Then, just let them stay on the grass. Chopped leaves will decompose, bringing nutrients to the soil and reducing the volume of the waste stream, and you'll save yourself hours of hard work!
- If you cannot let the leaves remain on your yard, collect them either mulched or whole and compost them. You can build a compost bin yourself, or purchase a compost bin in which to put the leaves. After a few months, you'll have a great (and free) soil amendment for your garden and flowers.
- Available at most hardware and garden centers, paper lawn bags are preferred at composting facilities. They recycle better than plastic bags and cause less waste during processing. The cost per bag can be more than plastic, but most people need far fewer paper bags. Even better than paper bags are reuseable containers or bins. Check with your trash collector to be sure reuseable containers are allowed; customers of the Fairfax County Solid Waste Management Program may use reuseable containers.
- If you must use plastic bags, make sure they are clear. Yard waste set out for collection in a dark bag will likely be collected and disposed of as trash, instead of being recycled.
- Make sure you follow the set-out requirements of your trash collector for yard waste to ensure that the brush and leaves will be properly collected and therefore recycled!
Tips like these can be delivered right to your e-mail inbox in The Fairfax Recycler, our periodic e-newsletter. Sign up today! Look under "Public Works and Utilities" at the bottom of the page.
There's more composting information available through several government websites: