The bags of leaves and grass clippings lining the driveway on
trash pickup day will
soon be handled differently.

As of Sept. 1, Georgia landfills will no longer accept
leaves, grass clippings or tree
trimmings, said Wayne McLaurin, a horticulturist with the
University of Georgia Extension
Service.

Communities are handling the new state ban on landscape waste
in landfills in various
ways. Yard trimmings will be picked up separately from regular
garbage. In some places, it
may cost more to dispose of yard wastes. Check with your trash
company or city manager to
find out proper disposal methods.

Banning these products should cause a great drop in landfill
use. These natural
by-products of lawns and landscapes account for up to 30 percent
of the waste dumped in
landfills.

"The average Georgia lawn produces 1,500 pounds of grass
each year," McLaurin
said. "We need to keep all this natural waste out of the
landfill. You should handle
as much as you can on your own property."

Recycling plant litter should just come naturally. Nature has
always composted
materials by dropping leaves at the bottom of trees and adding
the nutrients back into the
soil.

"We get in the way by raking and burning the leaves and
pine straw," McLaurin
said.

"You have many techniques available to recycle or
dispose of yard wastes," he
said. "Mulching is really composting in place. You’re
letting leaves and pine straw
deteriorate right where they lay instead of putting them in a
bin. It’s a great way to
take care of a lot of the leaves we’ll be getting in the next
few months.

"If you prefer the look of pine straw around your
plants, put down about two
inches of leaves and add pine straw over them," he said.
"Vast amounts of leaves
and pine straw can be used around shrubs and pine
islands."

Composting is a natural and convenient way to recycle
landscape wastes. It’s also a
low-cost way to produce rich humus you can add back to your
soil, he said.

You can use almost any organic materials for composting. That
includes grass clippings,
leaves, flowers, annual weeds, twigs, chopped brush, old
vegetable plants and straw. Don’t
compost diseased plants, weeds with seeds or invasive weeds like
morning glory and nut
sedge.

You can also compost kitchen peelings and coffee grounds. But
don’t add table scraps.
They may attract animals.

A common concern is that compost piles smell bad.

"They don’t smell if they have good ventilation,"
McLaurin said.
"Odor-causing bacteria are killed by heat within the pile.
If you add animal manures
to the pile, you can expect some initial odor. But it will
dissipate in one to two
days."

A compost bin needs to be at least a cubic yard (3 feet by 3
feet by 3 feet).

"Large piles break down faster than smaller piles,"
McLaurin said, "but
they’re also harder to manage."

Visit your county Extension Service agent for free brochures
about grasscycling,
mulching and composting.