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Politics & Government

Yard Waste Grinders (Hopefully) Coming to a Compost Near You

Lehigh County municipalities may be able to borrow county equipment from Emmaus, Lower Macungie.

Municipal officials who were unhappy when Lehigh County decided to get out of the yard waste composting business may be glad to hear that the compost equipment should be available for their use before too long.

Emmaus and Lower Macungie Township have agreed to take possession of the grinders, trucks and loaders and loan them out to other municipalities at cost, said Glenn Solt, county director of general services. “If they need acclamation and training, we’ll help them out with that,” Solt said.

Some municipalities have their own composts and only rented the county equipment to grind branches into mulch, so this deal could be especially helpful to them.  Solt said he expects the agreement between Emmaus and Lower Macungie and the county for managing about a dozen pieces of equipment to come before the county commissioners later this month. The State Department of Environmental Protection must sign off on it also, Solt said.

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State rules prohibit the private company that took over operating the county’s Organics Recycling Center in Orefield from using the equipment purchased with state grants.

Unwilling to continue subsidizing the Organics Recycling Center in Orefield to the tune of $500,000 a year, the county signed a five year contract with Middle Smithfield Materials of Palmerton to take control of the operation on July 1. Middle Smithfield still accepts branches, leaves, grass clippings and other yard waste and rents equipment to municipalities that do their own grinding and disposal of branches.

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The company’s rates for taking municipalities’ yard waste range from $5 a cubic yard for up to 1,000 yards annually to $2.50 a cubic yard for more than 7,500 yards a year. Solt said each municipality can negotiate with Middle Smithfield for better deals.

“The new company is up and running and everything is going very smoothly,” Solt said.

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