Saw something today that made me want to stop and say "No - don't do that!"

Walking the boy to nursery as I do most mornings I passed a guy doing a great job tidying up a section of footpath. He'd picked all the litter and swept the accumulated and well broken down leaf mulch from the summer up into piles. So far so good.

Then he swept up the piles of leaf mould and put it in bin bags to carry away, rather than spreading it on the struggling flower beds 6ft away.

Doh.

The trick is to say something which implies that they are going to do the right thing...

"Wow, that leaf mulch is really going to help your flowerbed. Good for you."

Paid council employee... not a hope of getting him to do anything other than he was told.

Michael Cox wrote:Paid council employee... not a hope of getting him to do anything other than he was told.

It's the government method of doing things "If it will make perfectly good sense then it shouldn't be done, ever!"

This is not unlike how most have been dumbed down by the chemical companies that have spent billions conditioning everyone that they need herbicides, pesticides and chemical fertilizers in order to grow anything. It's a big business!
It wasn't that way in the old days. I'm remembering my Grandmother who grew up in a poor family and then the great depression came. Until her end of days, everything that could be used and reused was saved and treasured. Very little was ever thrown away. Vegetables were grown in a lush garden. There was an orchard of fruit trees.....
NO CHEMICALS were ever purchased or used.

i've been helping out some friends with a landscaping business they have for a bit of cash and was totally surprised when the end results of all of the trimmings from the peoples lawns end up getting carted away. i figured we were taking them to some kind of spot designated to dump for free, but it was actually a huge cost to dump this stuff off.

i actually could not believe that people actually PAY real money to dump off this stuff, and like a quite a bit of money just to drop off truckloads of compost/mulch. really i was in shock, never having experienced this, or people who think like this. my friends thought it was a bit weird i had never heard of this, to which i said...well i have led a rather UN sheltered life, cause apparently this is quite the norm for many people in suburban areas.

even though my friends are hip to mulch and all that in their own gardens, they get paid to make it look all nice and neat, and dont have space of their own enough to be able to deal with the sheer volume of stuff they have to cart away. they managed to find a place thats a bit cheaper, that helps, and those people turn it into compost and sell it along with their own soil mixes.... but still its an issue they dont have a good solution for...where they could just dump for free or something.

maybe permies need to work on this, if you had space and made it well known to the local landscaping companies you would accept truckloads of compostable stuff for free, i think one could be swimming in free mulch delivered to your spot.

but personally i think the people should just keep it onsite, but thats not going to fly with the land owners, they want it all gone.

I'm put my name around lots of local tree surgeons. So far I can only seem to persuade them to drop stuff off if I physically stop them when they are working less than a mile away. They just won't seem to go out of their way for it. I'm not sure if they have other free dumping spots or if they are paying for a dump elsewhere.

yeah i'm sure its a regional thing, probably other places have different options. maybe some places have free dumping of green waste.

actually where i am at theres some cool earthy people, its pretty aware when it comes to at least some stuff like this, which is probably why theres at least the good option of the one place that charges 9 dollars per truckload, but does turn it into compost and soil on their own and resells it. the other place was weighed and it was like over 20 dollars to dump a big truckload. the landowner pays that not the company, so they dont neccessarily have any direct motivation to seek out the best places....but it would bring the overall cost to the landowner down.

i would think the landscaping companies would want something really simple, like the spot is designated before hand with a sign that says drop here, and could be accessed on a moments notice.

i would think youre right they dont want to go way out of their way or have to spend time trying to contact someone, figure it out or do any more to secure the arrangements. you would have to make it really easy for them, and have it always available, or somehow work it out so that it doesnt seem weird to them.

leila hamaya wrote:yeah i'm sure its a regional thing, probably other places have different options. maybe some places have free dumping of green waste.

actually where i am at theres some cool earthy people, its pretty aware when it comes to at least some stuff like this, which is probably why theres at least the good option of the one place that charges 9 dollars per truckload, but does turn it into compost and soil on their own and resells it. the other place was weighed and it was like over 20 dollars to dump a big truckload. the landowner pays that not the company, so they dont neccessarily have any direct motivation to seek out the best places....but it would bring the overall cost to the landowner down.

i would think the landscaping companies would want something really simple, like the spot is designated before hand with a sign that says drop here, and could be accessed on a moments notice.

i would think youre right they dont want to go way out of their way or have to spend time trying to contact someone, figure it out or do any more to secure the arrangements. you would have to make it really easy for them, and have it always available, or somehow work it out so that it doesnt seem weird to them.

This has come up before, and there is even a web based signup available for having chips dropped at your property. After reading the disclaimers and waivers on the site, I opted not to go that route - they come and dump whenever, whatever and pretty much wherever, and you have to notify them when you want it to stop - where I am now, that does not seem to be a good option for me. maybe with lots more land it would make more sense, but on a quarter acre suburban lot, not so much.