Hazardous grass clippings

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/06/2014 (3971 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It is not unusual to see multiple bags of yard waste along the curbs in Steinbach. That is something the solid waste department head is concerned about. Every day, the city’s garbage trucks haul a lot of yard waste to the landfill, creating dangerous gasses instead of being added to the compost pile.

“That’s a real shame for two reasons,” said Eldon Wallman. “One, the obvious reason is environmental. Once that goes into the landfill, that’s a huge contributor to greenhouse gasses. That’s the bane of our existence. Landfills across North America and the world are trying to get rid of those gasses. It’s a concern and here we are, dumping 10 metric tonnes of grass a day into the Steinbach landfill. It’s a real shame.”

Wallman also points to the human aspect of transporting the bags of grass.

“We have two guys out there that are picking this stuff up at 1,000 homes a day. We have employees recovering from injuries from picking up grass bags. That’s a real shame, too.”

The city has compost bins set up at three locations every Saturday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Woodlawn School, Stonybrook Middle School and along Deerfield Trail by the park.

In the paper edition of The Carillon this week, more on this story with details of the city’s plans to increase composting and reducing waste that enters the landfill.