By Julianna Parker
With most of fall already fallen, it may be a good time to collect those leaves and turn them into something useful.
Dead leaves and twigs can be spread over the ground as mulch or may be turned into compost through a decomposition process, City of Norman Director of Utilities Ken Komiske said.
Thanksgiving week is traditionally a busy time for the city's composting facility, he said. Many area residents take advantage of the time off to collect the leaves that have finished falling by about that time, he said.
The city's composting facility, 3450 S. Jenkins Ave., composts year round. The city collects leaves, brush and branches curbside on specific collection days and also accepts them any time at the facility, which is open 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The facility gets different things at different times, Komiske said.
"In the summer it's grass clippings, in the fall it's leaves and in the winter it's tree trimmings," he said.
One contributor to the facility every year is the University of Oklahoma. All those trees on campus produce a bunch of leaves, many of which will end up in the city's composting facility before the end of the season.
"While the colorful leaves are falling, we want people to enjoy the full effect of the season so we focus on keeping leaves blown away only in areas that could pose a safety hazard, such as stairs, steps, ramps and entries to buildings," OU Director of Landscape and Grounds Allen King said in an e-mail.
During the first stages of cleanup, OU staff members mulch the leaves with their mowers so that the soil will benefit from the decomposed leaves, he said.
"When the leaves start to accumulate in such abundance that they can become a safety hazard -- causing tripping or fire -- we begin a major cleanup," King said.
Staff members still use mowers to mulch the leaves, but then they collect the mulch with turf sweepers, he said. When a truckload of mulched leaves is collected, they are taken to the city's compost facility, King said.
Although this is the first fall since the December ice storm that downed many trees in Norman, Komiske said it is too early to tell if there will be less mulch available this year.
Already this year, the city's facility is in a crunch to receive all that is being brought in.
"This is a difficult time for us right now because we're moving," Komiske said. The city is hoping to be in its new nearby facility this spring, he said.
"That's exciting," he said. "We'll more than double our size."
Right now, the facility turns mulch into compost one batch at a time, Komiske said. The mulch is laid out about six feet high and rotated every couple of days.
It takes about 100-110 days for the batch to decompose enough to become compost, in the process shrinking to about three to four feet deep. So compost is only available every three months or so.
"In our new facility, we'll have more room and hopefully have a couple batches going (at one time)," Komiske said. That way, residents can pick up compost at shorter intervals.
The city gives away compost for free if residents will load it themselves. Or the city can load it for $10 per load.
The facility also gives out mulch at any time.
"That's still pretty good for protecting your plants and stuff," Komiske said.
Mulching and composting is "one of the original ways of recycling," he said. The city's composting facility keeps about 10,000 tons of waste out of the landfill every year.
"This way we keep all that yard waste out of the landfill," he said.
For more information about the City of Norman's compost facility, call 292-9725.
Julianna Parker 366-3541 jparker@normantranscript.com
