Most people do not consider leaves and grass clippings as “yard waste” when considering benefits and cost savings. But they ought to.
Organic waste material is interesting because traditionally, most of us rake it up, stuff it down in a green waste barrel, and then repeat the procedure a few weeks later. But every bit of “waste” and yard waste serves a purpose.
Perhaps you’re thinking, “Great! So I don’t need to rake it all up anymore?”
Not quite.
Types of Yard Waste
Yard waste refers to organic materials generated from the maintenance and care of outdoor spaces, such as gardens, lawns, and landscaping. Proper disposal and management of yard waste are essential for environmental sustainability.
Here are some common types of yard waste:
- Grass Clippings: Generated when mowing the lawn, grass clippings are small pieces of cut grass. They decompose relatively quickly and can be used as mulch or added to compost.
- Leaves: Fallen leaves from trees and shrubs during autumn are common yard waste. It can also be composted to enrich the soil or used as mulch.
- Tree Trimmings and Branches: Pruning and trimming trees and shrubs create branches and wood debris. Depending on the size, these can be chipped into mulch or collected for municipal composting facilities.
- Garden Debris: Waste from garden cleanups, including spent plants, weeds, and vegetable scraps, is considered yard waste. Composting is an ideal way to dispose of this type of organic material.
Proper yard waste disposal is essential to reducing landfill waste and contributes to sustainable practices. If you need a yard waste clean-up service, please call us at Better Junk Haul.
How can yard waste be used?
Yard waste can be used in various eco-friendly and beneficial ways. Here are some creative and practical ways to utilize yard waste:
- Composting: Yard waste, such as grass clippings, leaves, small branches, and plant trimmings, can be composted to create nutrient-rich organic fertilizer. Compost adds essential nutrients to the soil, improves soil structure, and helps retain moisture, fostering healthier plant growth.
- Mulching: Shredded leaves and wood chips can be used as mulch around plants and trees. Mulching helps conserve soil moisture, suppresses weed growth, and regulates soil temperature, ensuring a healthier garden while reducing the need for water and chemical herbicides.
Remember to avoid using yard waste from treated wood or plants exposed to harmful chemicals, as these can harm the environment and should be disposed of properly.
If you have excess yard waste and need a clean up, please don’t hesitate to call Better Junk Haul, and we will immediately clean up all the excess yard waste you have.
How Your Outdoor Space Can Benefit from Organic Yard Waste
First, it’s usually best to avoid using the phrase “yard waste.”
The organic material in your yard, such as leaves, grass clippings, and yard trimmings, can be recycled and repurposed. Actually, recycling a lot of your yard waste as you can avoid using chemical fertilizers, a common source of harmful runoff in suburban areas.
Nutrients, particularly nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, are vital elements your grass and other landscaping plants require to survive and develop. Most grasses and other plants also need lower amounts of calcium, magnesium, and sulfur.
To feed the grass and plants, you don’t need to buy chemical or organic fertilizers; instead, you can use what you already have.
Many individuals are rediscovering the advantages of composting, particularly for recycling organic waste and yard clippings. Composting is nothing new, and many people have always been engaged in it, but it is becoming more popular among suburban homeowners and renters.
Domestic food scraps and yard waste are thought to make up twenty to thirty percent of what enters the waste stream and ultimately ends up in landfills, which are swiftly running out of space. Diverting all organic waste to compost bins greatly decreases the variety of processed waste.
The primary benefit of compost is that it promotes plant growth as an organic substance applied to the soil. This stuff consists of hard items like branches, twigs, and dried leaves. These components are known as “browns” in the context of composting.
The term “greens” refers to all the “soft” organic waste products that can be put in your compost pile, like grass clippings, fruit scraps, vegetable trash, and coffee grounds. Most of us produce waste; thus, creating a compost bin is easy.
Composting Basics
Organic waste can be eliminated and reduced organically through composting. Some people choose not to compost because the procedure puts them off or they are unsure what can be composted. However, composting can aid in reducing the volume of organic waste you discard in the municipal trash stream, thus reducing the quantity that ends up in our landfills.
What is Composting?
Compost is organic material “recycled” naturally into fertilizer or soil amendment. Composting, to put it simply, is letting a pile of moist organic material, including leaves and food scraps, decompose over weeks or months into humus. While simple to initiate, the processes to generate compost are intricate and call for particular water, nitrogen, carbon, and air ratios.
What Can be Composted?
Vegetables, leaves, fruit, branches, eggshells, plants, and coffee grounds are a few examples of the various organic materials that can be composted. You can include shredded cardboard, plain paper, and used coffee filters in your compost.
Advantages of Composting
Composting not only lowers the volume of organic waste in landfills but also lessens the impact of landfills’ organic waste decomposition on the environment. Using compost as fertilizer for flowers and plants in your garden can benefit your outdoor areas more than harmful chemicals.
Composting Organic “Junk”
You can find a ton of information online to assist you in building a compost bin to hold all the materials you need for composting. At first, composting might seem complicated, but once you get into a routine, it’s pretty simple, and you’ll do your part to protect the environment.
The amount of organic debris and waste you eventually have can still be much greater than what you can compost or otherwise utilize. When this occurs, hiring a junk removal company like Better Junk Haul to gather the excess green organic waste offers an effective and quick way to eliminate it (for example, mulch).
Tips on Composting and Reducing Yard Waste
An easy-to-use compost bin can be built and used. You must be close to a water source in a dry, shaded location. Best is a level area of your yard that is approximately three to five feet square and is preferred off to a single side or at a corner. Construct three sides, or at least a back, to help support your pile.
When adding brown or green materials, wet them as you go.
The proportion of “browns” to “greens” in your compost pile should be nearly equal, and each layer must alternate between green and brown. The brown substance provides carbon, whereas nitrogen is in the green.
You can eventually incorporate grass clippings and green waste into the pile or even bury vegetable and fruit waste under approximately 10 inches of compost once a pile a few feet high has been established.
To keep it moist while avoiding excess rainwater, you should cover its top using a tarp. When the material at the bottom gets dark in color, your compost is ready to use. The EPA offers a valuable resource with additional details and advice on composting.
The fact that there is less yard waste is another positive element.
The following methods will help you save money, time, and expenses:
- Controlled Irrigation: Just enough water is needed to keep plants looking and functioning normally. Plan your watering schedule based on the weather and your plants’ needs. It will control uncontrolled plant growth and cut down on waste.
- Utilizing Precise Fertilization: Based on soil tests and the nutrient requirements of the plants, apply the exact amounts of required plant nutrients. Since most woody plants don’t need fertilizer for regular growth, ceasing fertilizer applications will lessen the trimming requirement, decreasing the amount of waste generated by greenery.
- Grasscycling: Cutting grass without using a bag and leaving grass clippings on the ground is known as “grasscycling.” The grass is covered in tiny chopped-up clippings from mulching mowers. As they decompose, the added organic matter reduces the need for fertilizer and watering.
- Selective Pruning: Use methods that produce healthy plants and natural development patterns. Prune away only diseased or dead branches, leaves, or flowers, and woody plants should take on their natural form.
You Can Hire a Professional Team For Yard Waste Clean Up
There are times when you can only handle some of the yard waste. Recent storms may have left large tree branches all across your yard. Or you’re about to do some landscaping or gardening that will spread plenty of dirt and trash around.
You also have non-organic trash in your yard that you haven’t had time to remove, such as clutter and junk.
Thanks to Better Junk Haul’s effective, secure, and environmentally responsible yard waste cleanup and removal service, you won’t have to worry about the collection or disposal of your yard garbage. Our skilled debris removal staff will break down and remove any yard garbage you have. Our junk removal trucks are designed to manage those filthy yard waste items, unlike the backseat of your car.
If you have any questions or want more information regarding our services, call us at (702) 903-2363.