Iowa Compost Programs May Fold

The solid waste agency for metropolitan Des Moines, Iowa, may shut down its compost program, which requires residents to buy special bags for lawn clippings and leaves. If the program is abolished, residents throughout Iowa will again have the option of bagging leaves, grass and other lawn trimmings for disposal in landfills.

A bill has passed the Iowa Legislature to allow the composting program to die. Iowa’s governor has not yet signed it.

In published remarks, William Stowe, public works director for Des Moines, said getting rid of the compost program will save money, saying the program is, “bad science, bad policy, and bad economics.”

Several recycling advocacy groups disagree with that assessment. Closing down yard trimmings recycling programs would “undermine one of the most important elements of America’s recycling efforts,” says Allen Hershkowitz of the Natural Resources Defense Council, New York. The council is one of eight environmental groups that have banded together to lobby to save the program, jointly lobbying under the name the Coalition to Oppose Attacks on Recycling in America.

One of those coalition members, Erich Pica of Friends of the Earth, Washington, says the Des Moines program can erase its red ink by shifting from a curbside format to simply letting residents use their own clippings as a soil amendment. Other cities operate one or more drop-off locations for yard clippings.