Grunder Landscaping Co.

Compost: What Happens to the Yard Waste We Pick Up?

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We take our job as stewards of green spaces seriously. One of the many ways that we care for our environment is with the way we handle debris and yard waste that we remove from properties in Dayton and Cincinnati, Ohio.

Putting mulch in a truck

When we remove debris, leaves, and yard waste from your property, we bring it back to our Miamisburg facility to compost and recycle what we can. We do all of our composting at our Dayton, Ohio facility.

Here are the steps that leaves go through:

  1. Fresh leaves are put into a pile in the composting complex on our Miamisburg property.
  2. A team member regularly inspects the pile to remove any trash or other materials that accidentally end up in the pile.
  3. The leaves decompose.
  4. Our team periodically turns the leaf pile so that leaves are evenly exposed to air.
  5. After a few repetitions of this process, the decomposed leaves are processed to become our specialty Gro-Mix.
  6. We typically have multiple compost piles at different stages at any given time – one pile each for fresh leaves, in-process compost, and compost ready to use.

In 2023, approximately 1,750 cubic yards of material we used came from our composting efforts. The Gro-Mix we create is very rich and has so many great nutrients that plants love without anything added to it. We use it to fill new beds, to amend soil periodically for a nutrient boost, and as the top layer on any garden beds.

We store brush and branches in a separate pile that we will run through a chipper to create wood chips. These wood chips are used on larger properties and are more cost-effective than mulch would be. In addition, we also bring yard waste and soil from excavations back to our property for reuse. Our composting facility is a Class IV Composting Facility, which is regularly inspected by the EPA to ensure compliance.

There are other materials, like mulch and pine straw, for example, that we get from a high-quality supplier. Know that the standard materials we use during a landscape installation or during landscape maintenance are always the highest quality we can find and what is best for your plants horticultully.