Brush and yard waste pickup in the Village of Hiram is suspended indefinitely, leaving residents to find other ways to dispose of unwanted organic material.
Village employees had been picking up grass clippings, brush, twigs, leaves, branches and Christmas trees. Not any more, and burning the material is not an option, thanks to a separate village ordinance.
Hiram’s service workers had been dumping the material between the village water plant and the hike and bike trail. That got the attention of the EPA, which deemed the dump area a health hazard, Council President Robert Dempsey said.
“We’re trying to figure out what to do,” he said. “We don’t have any place to store it so we’re working on a few things like buying a chipper and having it dumped maybe someplace else in the county or having our waste disposal pick it up.”
Residents who wish to dispose of their yard waste may make arrangements with their trash hauler, though that might mean an added expense, Dempsey said.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.
Much ‘waste’ can be composted in one’s yard. It may not be pretty, and it can take a bit of work, but it only helps improve the soil, and it benefits *you*. I actually rent and am in Kent, so there is pickup of leaves, etc., but the leaf and grass litter we generate work quite well as winter mulch. My snapdragons and dianthus, e.g., survived nicely, particularly the latter. Things spring back (pun intended) much more quickly when they’ve been buried under slow-composting waste all winter. We actually compost our kitchen veggie/coffee waste without the means of a bona fide composter (which are great; I’m just cheap). I dump it into trenches, burying it along with twigs and small branches, leaves, grass, and whatever else is around. It is slow composting, but once the process is going well, which means many, many worms (thus birds) move in and work the soil and waste, it works much faster. I can fill a trench, mixing in worms/compost/dirt, and in a month’s time, all is pretty much processed. I will leave my landlord an extremely healthy yard along with a 12 x 12 garden area, culinary herb patch, and a dozen or so other perennials that flower and attract beneficial insects and birds. Good karma for my wife and I, or so I hope.
I understand I’m speaking in terms of small amounts of waste. Yet, limbs and larger can be used for raised bed formation (hugelkulture: https://www.almanac.com/what-hugelkultur-ultimate-raised-bed), and perhaps neighbors or groups can band together to put all that ‘waste’ to good use. Neighborhood gardens, mulch, etc.; just don’t compost your herbicide-sprayed stuff!
Just thoughts. (And worms really do love those coffee grounds!)