What about yard waste?

danielpw · Dec 10, 2012

Yard waste is 20% of what goes from our towns to the dumps... an easy shred for our kind of equipment. Is anybody doing anything with it? I hate to pay to put the stuff in a landfill....

KPark · Dec 11, 2012

If a person has an undeveloped area to utilize, could spread the material there for natural decomposition. If not, then maybe a farm that does bulk composting. It does not make good fill, but does turn into good topsoil after a few years. For some the easy way out is just to take it to the dump.

sdkubota · Dec 11, 2012

Most landfills compost yard waste.

sweettractors · Dec 11, 2012

Can you burn it? Ken Sweet

danielpw · Dec 11, 2012

I agree. The best use is to put it back on the land... it knows what to do with it.
The landfills that compost.... only do so to stabilize the latent spontaneous combustion factor (like hay that is baled or stacked too wet catches fire, burns barns). Stabilized organics are then mixed with dirt and used for daily cover (ADC) over the solid waste... dilution being the solution, it will not be so bio-reactive as to cause those fires, but will produce methane for decades as it decomposes in the landfill instead of doing some good on the ground... Some of the material is sold but the bulk of it is added to the landfill's cover.
Many contractors grind and process the yard waste and sell it as mulch to be sure, but most of it goes to the landfills.
Biomass for fuel is one of those coming resources but yard waste is full of contaminants: the leaves, twigs, bark, grass and dirt have to be screened out, leaving the wood fiber relatively clean, before the BTU capture is truly worth the effort. The fine screened material is a good soil amendment soil because it is so biologically complex... hauling it back out is expensive.
Transporting the materials is the primary issue. Shred the material in a small town brushlot and you don't have to pay to take it anywhere. Why do we give this soon-to-be landscape and fuel resource away when almost every small town can handle the material with a shredder mounted on one of their own tractors?

MIKE R · Dec 11, 2012

sweettractors said:
Can you burn it?

Thats what I do. If it can burn in the fire it goes.

danielpw · Dec 11, 2012

It will burn, but it is more like the corn stover they used to burn for heat in the 30's... lotta smoke and had to be fanned a lot... gave rise to the Sunday Funnies cartoon "Smoky Stover" of the 40's and 50's. The do bale and burn stover as boiler fuel at larger energy plants in the midwest but, once again, yard waste is a much dirtier fuel and even after it is dried it isn't worth much...

leveled · Dec 11, 2012

I take my leaves and put them in the closest wet spot, I also have been putting them in the chickens outside pen area and letting them crap all over them, in the spring ill clean it out and use it for fertilizer.

MarkV · Dec 11, 2012

I wish yard wastes were being used more efficiently. When I first moved to my very rural community a local business let the city dig two deep strips on some vacant property they owned. The city dumped all the collected yard waste there and several times a year would bring in a large loader to push the 2 year old compost out for the public to take free. I brought home many yards of great material in my small dump truck. Now the city pays a recycler to take the yard wastes, they transport it to him, who turns it into compost and sells it. Go figure.

MarkV

yellowdogsvc · Dec 11, 2012

I mix yard waste, wood chips, brush, stumps, dirt, etc, and then run the mulcher over it. Makes great dirt fill after awhile especially if you add to it and continue to turn it.

danielpw · Dec 12, 2012

I do about the same.. grind it up, pile it, rototill it into the garden in the spring... works perfect

grnspot110 · Dec 12, 2012

For the leaves & garden waste to compost:

Merry Mac, 5 HP Briggs, screen removed so it doesn't plug with green plants. I gave $67 for it off ebay!

For sticks & branches for mulch:

$450 for it off CL (about 1/2 new price), 10 HP Briggs, handles up to 3" (better be pretty straight!), 2" is more realistic! Anything bigger gets cut up for firewood for the shop. ~~ grnspot

sdkubota · Dec 12, 2012

I used to pile my bagged grass in a wire enclosure by the yard. I would periodically add a little water and the grass would really settle dut to decomposition. At the end of the process I had a large pile of indistinguishable from cow crap both in color and smell. I essentially cut out the cow from the process but ended in the same place.

danielpw · Dec 12, 2012

Yuppers... add some steer or cow crap to get the best cellulose enzymes out there... like sourdough

danielpw · Dec 12, 2012

I think the Mac is a later version of the old Sears models. The best small grinders! I think the whining public forced them to add the no-throwback chute... incidentally making it much harder to feed. I too took out the counter-combs to get thru-put, only adding them when I use it to pulp apples and pears when we make cider.
The older ones had a metal chute that dropped straight down to let stuff be raked in. The one in the pictures has a plastic one that somewhat restricts the pieces that tend to fly back out... The older ones also had a ring with 4 stubs sticking out about 3/4" where the chute bolts to the body.... that held back the in-feed so that the wheel got a couple more whacks before it got into the chamber... it shredded better.
Hardfacing the ends of the little hammers and balancing them did wonders too.
Great tool.

1bush2hog · Dec 12, 2012

danielpw said:
I think the Mac is a later version of the old Sears models. The best small grinders! I think the whining public forced them to add the no-throwback chute... incidentally making it much harder to feed. I too took out the counter-combs to get thru-put, only adding them when I use it to pulp apples and pears when we make cider.

Hardfacing the ends of the little hammers and balancing them did wonders too.
Great tool.
View attachment 292617 View attachment 292616

Huh. I missed something here. Yard waste is put into
the back corner of the property and depending on the H O a bucket or shovel of dirt can expedite the decomposition process. Not rocket science. Throw in some leftover greens and some coffee grounds to round it out. Shake and bake or turn and burn

danielpw · Dec 13, 2012

True, if you are not in a hurry. Composting is technically defined as accelerated decomposition. If I want to incorporate those prunings into my garden in the spring I must make more surface area available to the bugs that do the decomposition, with enough mass and insulation for the meso and thermophilic bugs to supply the heat to make the decomposer food web happy... so fine particle size produced by shredding is imperative for the composting process to work... natural science.