ELYRIA — It doesn’t look like much now — it’s simply a cleared field surrounded by trees that is a stone’s throw from downtown.

But the area is perfect for composting, which is great news because starting Monday, the location near Chestnut and Elm streets will open to the public as the Elyria Regional Compost Facility.

The facility, a partnership between Kurtz Bros. of Independence and the city, was five months in the making and will change how the city collects yard waste. Kurtz will operate the facility; the city provided the land.

No longer will residents take grass clippings, leaves and brush to the city’s Central Maintenance Garage. The city site offered no oversight or security and often left city employees to pick up the mess left behind by residents, who dumped their waste at all hours.

Kevin Brubaker, the city’s deputy safety service director, said the new setup is a “win-win-win situation.”

The city benefits because a private company now will be responsible for collecting the raw materials and turning it into compost. Residents will continue to be able to drop off their yard waste for free and, in exchange, the agriculture materials will be available at an “Elyria-only” price.

And Kurtz Bros. will benefit because it’ll get a second retail location, adding to the one it operates in Avon.

The idea to start a partnership with Kurtz Bros. came about because the city is on target to spend more than $170,000 this year to have yard waste hauled away.

The city is paying $13.70 a yard to have grass clippings and yard waste hauled away and $3 a yard to have the same done for leaf waste.

It is estimated that 7,000 cubic yards of grass clippings and yard waste and 25,000 cubic yards of leaf waste will be collected this year.

Kurtz uses the waste to produce mulch, compost and topsoil that it then sells on the retail market.

The new rates for the city under the proposal would be $4 per cubic yard for yard waste and $1 a cubic yard for leaf waste.

Today is the final day residents can drop off yard waste at the city’s Central Maintenance Garage on Garden Street.

Regular hours for dropping off at the new compost facility are 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to noon Saturday.

Unlike before — when residents could make drop offs without informing city employees — residents will have to show identification and/or utility bills to ensure the waste being dropped off is that of Elyria residents only.

Brubaker said the city knows some residents will continue to come to the Garden Street location during the transition.
City employees will be available to point them in the right direction of the new facility.

To educate residents on the change, a flier will soon go out in utility bills, he said.

Beyond the changes in location and time, Brubaker said residents who bag their yard waste in plastic bags will have to break the bags and dump the waste in the designated spot at the new facility.

Kurtz Bros. cannot compost the plastic bags and will not accept bagged material.

Contact Lisa Roberson at 329-7121 or lroberson@chroniclet.com.