New South Bend city job: separating trash from yard waste as bins frequently contaminated
SOUTH BEND — It was the monotony of the work — lifting a pile of organic material with a mechanical arm, spreading it out over the ground and picking out the garbage — that made Public Works Director Eric Horvath laugh and say, "He just goes nonstop."
He is Kollin Woltman, a worker hired to fill a newly created, full-time position at South Bend's Organic Resources Facility on the far northwest side. His primary job for the last four weeks: Cleaning up after residents who wrongly put all manner of trash in their yard waste bins.
The mounds Woltman sifts through in his Bobcat excavator are supposed to contain only weeds, grass clippings, leaves, flowers, twigs and small tree branches. The city collects the yard waste and transforms it into compost fertilizer and mulch that anyone can pick up, free of charge, for use while landscaping.
In reality, the piles contain — to name a few items present Monday morning — plastic flower pots, glass liquor bottles and a single children's shoe. According to Nancy Clay, operations manager at the city's organic resources and wastewater facilities, that list has previously included bags of clothing, a television, a lawn mower and, most harmfully, a hydraulic metal pipe.
“We had a hydraulic cylinder go through one. They found one, didn’t see the other one, went into The Beast and caused several thousand dollars of damage," Clay said, referring to the name of the site's compost grinder.
"It’s not just the labor cost. (Trash) can damage equipment, and then that, of course, slows our yard-waste grinding down so we can’t get as much compost made.”
The problem has become so pronounced that Clay, who says she spent many hot summer days personally removing trash from the piles of yard waste brought in by city trucks, asked Horvath for a full-time position devoted to garbage sifting.
That new role, added to the 2023 budget at more than $36,000 annually, is what had Horvath laughing as he watched the man driving the excavator Monday.
More: South Bend, Mishawaka find ways to keep up with trash
Woltman, who Clay says is "doing an excellent job," spends about 80% of his time sorting out as much garbage as he can from piles of organic material. He has turned what Clay called a "mountain" of infested material that was four times the size of his Bobcat into a "molehill."
City trucks take the trash to the landfill and sift out other contaminants with machines before grinding the remaining organic material into compost. The decomposition process takes four to six months, Clay said, with temperatures in the piles reaching up to 160 degrees as organisms break down the waste. On a cool morning, steam rose from rows of the dark brown material as machines turned it over.
The Public Works department didn't want to go this route, Horvath said. But a state inspection of the Organic Resources Facility by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management last year led to a violation notice.
At worst, continued violations would mean IDEM shuts down the site because it's more of an unlicensed landfill than a place where organic materials are reused. Horvath said roughly 900,000 pounds of trash were pulled from the piles in 2020 and 2021, whereas 11 million pounds of leaves, brush and yard waste were processed. He estimates 10% of the material taken in is trash.
The city's first thought was to educate residents about what can't go in the yard waste bins, for which South Bend residents can pay $3.50 a month for collections starting April 1 and lasting until Nov. 30.
Public Works sent an employee ahead of the collection trucks for five weeks to look inside yard waste bins and, if trash was present, refuse to take the material with a note explaining why. Drivers who pick up the bins can't see what's inside of them, so this was meant to target regular offenders.
Along with thousands of flyers sent through the mail, educational outreach has so far made little difference, Horvath said.
He reckons people don't fully understand how their material is reused and "essentially don’t care, right. They’re just getting it out of their house and not worrying about it, and figuring that we’ll figure it out here somehow."
"Ultimately it adds additional costs to the program," Horvath added. "We’ve got to cover those costs somehow. So it’s going to end up being built into the cost of the service somehow.”
He said the cost of picking out trash and processing compost is close to $14 a month per bin. While residents are now charged only $3.50 a month or $28 a year, the price will rise over time. Weekly trash pickup costs $14 a month per bin, he noted.
There are less obvious items that make it into yard waste bins but can't be converted to compost. Dirt, bricks, rocks, lumber and other non-organic landscaping materials can't be processed. Animal waste isn't allowed, either.
Food waste is also prohibited because the facility lacks the state permit required to turn it into compost.
The city isn't yet considering a food-waste composting program, Horvath said. If it ever happens, it won't be at the Organic Resources facility. The site abuts the South Bend Municipal Airport, and outdoor food-waste processing would likely attract birds like seagulls that could interfere with planes.
"There'd be a lot of cost to do it somewhere else," he said of a food-waste program, "and it doesn't make financial sense for us to do it right now."
What IS accepted in yard waste bins
Leaves
Grass clippings
Weeds
Twigs and prunings
Small branches — only small ones
Flowers
Residents can request one free extra pickup a month for large loads, measured as up to 10 30-gallon biodegradable yard waste bags or a cubic yard of bundled and tied limbs. Schedule an extra pickup at southbendin.gov/extrapickup.
What is NOT accepted in yard waste bins
Animal waste
Dirt and rocks
Food waste
Household trash
Lumber
Oils, liquids and other hazardous waste
Plastic bags
Recyclable materials
Contact South Bend Tribune city reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jordantsmith09
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend creates role to reduce garbage contamination of yard waste
