Historical October 1991 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
This summer a Recycling Committee, chaired by Andy Cross, was formed by the Skinker DeBaliviere Community Council.
To begin, the committee has focussed its attention on what the Council, neighborhood associations, and individuals can do in a local recycling effort. One point seems very clear at this time: the neighborhood does not have an appropriate location or the necessary financial support or personnel to establish our own recycling center.
It does, however, have a number of conscientious residents who are concerned about environmental problems.
The committee asked what might realistically be done and what would be most important to do first.
In addition to general educational goals, two issues were chosen as potential projects for development.
The first matter, the possibility of a contracted curbside pickup of recyclable materials, is still under discussion. Watch for further reports on this project in The Times.
The second activity is one that can and must be addressed immediately. Effective January 1, 1992, leaves, grass, and brush can no longer be placed in city trash dumpsters for pickup. What efforts should we be making to dispose of or use yard waste?
The State of Missouri has passed what is being viewed as landmark legislation in an effort to extend the life of the existing landfills. Approximately 20 percent of the material which goes into the solid waste stream (in other words, our dumpsters) is yard waste.
These materials can be disposed of or used in other ways which are less harmful, but it takes the combined efforts of citizens and municipalities rethinking the problem and finding solutions that people are willing to adopt. Sometime in the near future, it is anticipated that the City of St. Louis will be making provisions for disposal of yard waste by separate collections.
According to Roger Chadwick, deputy refuse commissioner for the City, who attended the August 31 meeting of the committee, three pilot programs have been started to test a system of designated dumpsters, brown ones for “regular” trash and newly painted green ones for yard waste. Using what they learn from these test areas, the City expects to have a system in place by January.
Meanwhile the grass continues to grow, trees and bushes drop branches or need trimming, and it is time for the leaves to change colors and drop. Although it is still legal to bag up your leaves and toss them into the trash dumpster, the Recycling Committee urges you to consider other alternatives. Turn Over an Old Leaf Have you ever thought about recycling your grass and leaves? Recycling is more than saving your newspapers and aluminum cans from the trash.
It is rethinking what comes into your home or is already there and what you will do with it when you think you no longer have a need for it. Reducing waste, reusing and recycling it are important contributions everyone can make to the environment and it may save you money and time. Yard waste can be disposed of in several ways: Let it stay where it falls. Use it as mulch. Compost it and use it as soil, fertilizer, and mulch. Since the grass cutting season seems to be coming to a close, we will pass on the easiest let it lay” solution until next spring and discuss mulching and composting leaves. Rather than raking and bagging your leaves or thinking of some other ingenious way of transporting them to the dumpster, consider using them as a mulch.
A mulch is any material applied to the soil surface for protection or improvement of the area covered. Grass clippings, leaves and shredded branches used as a mulch around trees, shrubs, in flower beds, and in vegetable gardens will control weeds, conserve soil moisture, reduce soil erosion, improve water penetration into the soil, protect against extreme heat and cold, and increase organic matter in the soil over time.
When leaves are dry, they can easily be shredded with a rotary lawn mower. Unless they are very heavy, the shredded leaves can be left on the lawn. Or they can be raked into a pile or row to be mowed down to a fine mulch for use in the garden or to be added to the compost heap.
We also rake leaves directly onto the rose bed. Wetting them down helps to keep them from blowing away.
This postpones having to do anything with them until the spring, when they are used to start a new compost pile.
We have been composting at varying levels of activity for over twenty years. Our compost heaps have ranged from the large and hot ones we maintained in southern Illinois, where we turned the clay soil into a great garden with the help of rotted hay and manure, grass clippings, leaves, and garden waste, to the modest ones we now have.
They take longer to turn into compost for the garden and flower beds, but the compost is still good and we don’t “help” our friends shovel out their stables.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, October 1991.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1991_10.pdf, printed page(s) 4; PDF page(s) 4.
