Gardnerville begins Full Circle Compost pilot program, asks residents to be mindful of green-waste contamination
Submitted by Jeff Munson on Sat, 08/17/2024 - 12:10pm
Each year, the Town of Gardnerville collects more than 450 tons of green waste from its residents. The green-waste program started in 2000 as a free service to Town residents as the Town was able to dispose of its green waste at Bently Ranch free of charge.
Every ton of green waste — diverted to Bently Ranch and kept out of the landfill — was a cost savings to Town residents and an environmental benefit for all.
Bently Ranch continued to accept the Town’s green waste free of charge until 2015. Since that time, the cost to dispose of green waste has steadily increased. The ongoing issue has been that the quality of green waste received from the Town has been problematic for Bently and other composters as many residents place non-compostable items in the green-waste can. Common items sent to the composting location, which contaminate the green waste, include pet feces, pressure-treated wood, dirt, sod, plastic and household trash.
Acceptable compostable materials include any vegetative matter resulting from normal yard and landscaping maintenance that is not more than 3 feet in its longest dimension or 6 inches in diameter. Yard waste includes plant debris such as grass clippings, leaves, pruning, weeds, branches, brush, garden waste, and other forms of vegetative waste.
The future of green waste
Due to the increasing cost to dispose of green waste, the Gardnerville Town Board is considering increases to solid-waste rates. At the July Town Board meeting, staff was directed to meet with Full Circle Compost to explore a green waste partnership. Full Circle Compost accepts clean green waste at $40 per ton or contaminated green waste at $75 per ton, so clean loads can be a significant cost savings to residents.
Green waste is considered contaminated if it contains more than 25 gallons of prohibited items in a load. Full Circle is able to take contaminated green waste as they hand sort all inbound green waste loads at their facility to clean and sort non-compostable materials. However, the first four loads delivered to Full Circle Compost have all exceeded the 25-gallon contamination limit and triggered the higher rates.
“From an environmental and economic standpoint, we would love to continue the Town’s green-waste program” stated Town Manager Erik Nilssen. “It is imperative to remove contaminants from the green waste. Dog feces and non-compostable yard waste such as rocks, dirt, cans, bottles, plastics, trash, and pressure treated wood are the main problems. The more waste we can keep out of the landfill the better for composting and the lower the cost will be for all Town residents.”
The Town has tried to minimize costs by exploring different options for disposing of its green waste. As the Town’s green waste became too contaminated for composting it was disposed of at the Carson City Landfill. The landfill charged $28 per ton to dispose of green waste compared to $58 per ton to dispose of municipal solid waste. The green waste was kept separate from municipal solid waste and was used as a cap layer over the solid waste.
The practice of using the green waste as a cap layer ended in 2023. During recent rate increases Carson City raised the cost to dispose of green waste to $72 per ton which matched the cost to dispose of municipal solid waste. The disposal location of the green waste is now the same as the solid waste.
This current practice has eliminated any economic or environmental benefit to offering a green waste service and the cost to Town rate payers to dispose of green waste has increased from a budgeted $16,000 in 2024 to $45,000 in 2025.
Nilssen added, “If our residents are diligent in using the green waste program correctly and making sure contaminants stay out of the green cans, costs stay down and the environmental benefits go up.”
About Full Circle Compost
Full Circle Compost is Nevada’s longest-running compost site operated by fifth generation Carson Valley dairy farmers and has been composting since 1997. Full Circle Compost kept a total of 76,141 cubic yards of organic materials out of the landfill in 2023. That’s equal to filling the Wolfpack’s football field 35-feet high with organic waste. The volume this material weighed was an impressive 22,117 tons. The greenhouse gases that were avoided by composting all that material rather than sending it into the landfill is equivalent to pulling 30,668 cars off the road or 11,837 metric tons of avoided CO2 emissions.
“Municipal solid waste is comprised of over 40 percent compostable materials,” stated Cody Witt, owner/operator of Full Circle Compost. “Waste diversion of green waste to composting is imperative to increase landfill efficiency, decrease landfill greenhouse gases, and create quality compost-based products to help Nevada increase soil fertility and water holding capacity. Composting is a very labor and highly capital-intensive business but the ability to “save Mother Earth” has keep Full Circle hard at work for the last 27 years. It is all about the community helping keep their organic waste as clean as possible to keep composting rates as low as possible.”
Full Circle’s green waste recycling program has grown to include many municipalities and organizations around northern Nevada and Lake Tahoe, including:
— Carson City’s residential organic materials composting program
— Incline Village’s fire prevention pine needle composting program
— South Lake Tahoe’s fire prevention pine needle and food waste composting program
— Truckee, California’s commercial food waste program
— University Of Nevada’s organic materials composting program
