1. Crews pick up properly prepared residential yard waste on designated days. Debris inside of the curbside cart must be free of contaminants, or unacceptable material that will hinder the composting process. Collected materials are transported to the Raleigh Yard Waste Center at 900 N. New Hope Rd. Learn your yard waste collection days here.
2. Yard waste from all over the City is dumped in a designated pile of debris. This step is the beginning of an on-site process to turn old vegetation into reusable organic materials.
3. Within one week, collected yard waste is ground into finer pieces to hasten decomposition. Reducing the size of the material provides more surface area for microorganisms to feed on and break down the organic matter. Large tree trunks and stumps are separated at his stage and ground down in a later phase.
4. Ground yard waste material is then dispensed into 18’ wide by 8’ tall piles called windrows, which sit for three to five months. A piece of equipment called a Windrow Turner is used to stir the piles of materials at least once a month. This step allows the material to maintain the temperature, oxygen levels, and moisture balance needed to continue breaking down.
The smoke seen in the photo is not coming from the machinery, it is a reaction of the decomposition process. The temperatures inside the windrow pile maintain a minimum of 131°F for at least three days between stirring which kills pathogens and renders seeds inert.
