Environmental Quality Commission

Events / Articles and Information

2800 Recycling Totes Are Now Available

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Meridian Waste Bulk Pick-Up Information

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Creating A Quality Environment by Composting

Just What Is Compost And Why Is It A Good Thing?

For one thing, compost is a good alternative to land filling yard wastes. Compost, also called humus, is a dark, crumbly, and earthy-smelling form of decomposing organic matter. It is a practical and convenient way to transform yard wastes into an environmental resource. By composting, you help Florissant and the State of Missouri meet their top priority for solid waste management reducing waste. Yard trimmings and kitchen scraps currently fill up valuable landfill space—20 to 30 percent of all household waste.

How Can Compost Help My Environment?

Compost returns organic matter to the soil in a usable form. If you have a garden, a lawn, trees, shrubs, or even planter boxes, you have a use for compost. Healthy plants help clean our air and conserve our soil, making Florissant a healthier place to live. Organic matter in the soil improves the environment by

• Enriching flower and vegetable gardens, improving the soil around trees and shrubs, or amending soil for house plants and planter boxes naturally by stimulating the growth of beneficial microorganisms
• Reducing nitrogen runoff, protecting lakes and streams by using compost not chemical fertilizers and pesticides in your yard.
• Conserving water by loosening clay soils to allow better root penetration and binding sandy soils, improving the capacity to hold water and nutrients
• Stimulating plant growth through time-release nutrients
• Protecting the landscape against weather extremes, especially drought, by keeping soils warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer
• Adding essential nutrients for a healthy soil ecosystem that fosters rapid decay of grass clippings and enhances the soil food chain and the wild bird population.
• Improving your soil is the first step toward improving plant health. Healthy plants help clean air, conserve soil, and beautify landscapes.

How Do I Compost?

Begin by picking out a composting site, preferably in a shady, level area of your yard. One with easy access to your kitchen and to your garden is best. A good starter compost pile size is about 3’x3’x3’. You can build a wood, box-like structure as a compost bin, create one out of wire, purchase a bin of plastic or other materials, or just make a pile in a corner of your yard. A type of turning unit is the barrel composter, which tumbles the wastes for aeration. Snow fencing works well. If you have a sturdy shovel or pitchfork, use it. Otherwise, you may want to buy a lightweight hay fork for mixing and aerating the compost every other week or so.

What Materials Can I Compost?

After you make your enclosure/bin, you’ll need some ingredients to start the pile. Add them layer by layer, mixing as you can. These are some good ones to use:

• Grass clippings
• Leaves
• Small twigs
• Flowers—deadheaded or throw-aways
• Non-spreading weeds
• Old plants/potting soil
• Wood chips
• Dryer lint
• Shredded paper
• Some food wastes that may be composted with your yard waste are vegetable and fruit scraps, coffee grounds (including the filter), tea leaves, tea bags and eggshells.

 

Do not use these:

• Meat, fish or dairy products
• Diseased or insect infested plants
• Weeds gone to seed
• Weeds that spread by runners (morning glory, quack grass, buttercups, etc.)
• Dog and cat wastes
• Woody waste that is not chopped or broken up finely enough
• Pressure treated, painted or preserved lumber scraps

If you want compost to be ready in two or three months rather than the next gardening season, you can turn it every few days. Moisten each layer of material as you add it to the pile so that it is spongy damp, but not soggy. Shredded materials work best and start the decaying process fastest.

For more information see easy “compost recipe” and compost links below:

Compost Recipe:

1. Brown material (leaves, hay, dry matter) - this cellulose material is the carbohydrate or “energy” food for the compost micro-organisms, who digest it to get the energy for their work. Most of the brown material leaves the pile as carbon dioxide. Use a mower or a shredder to grind the brown material into smaller pieces  to increase their surface area and speed of the decomposition. Don’t use wood chips and sticks because they take a long time to decay, they might be better used as mulch or composted separately.
2. Green material (grass, vegetable waste, manure, fertilizer) - this material contains nitrogen compounds that are important in the growth of the micro-organisms. The green material can produce odors in compost piles if allowed to clump together, so layer the ingredients and mix with a pitchfork. If you don’t have fresh grass or manure, mix in 1/2 of a 50 lb. bag of ground alfalfa fertilizer to each bin of fall leaves.
3. Soil or old compost - is full of micro-organisms that act similar to yeast in the making bread or yogurt –just a little bacteria to kick off the process! Although composting will work without the addition of soil or old compost it helps the process go faster.
4. Water (to a damp sponge consistency). It’s very important to have adequate moisture inside the compost pile—many piles suffer from being too dry. Water and stir the pile as you build it. Leaves are like shingles and prevent water from reaching all the material.
5. Air. Oxygen is required for the “slow fire” called composting. Without air, any biological activity will be severely limited and a shift to unhealthy bacteria may occur. Putrefactions can also occur when too much fresh green matter is added and not mixed well with the other materials. Mix all these ingredients and turn as you can - a hay fork (the fork with thin tines) is a good tool to do this. If the pile is cool but hasn’t turned to humus yet, it needs to be turned. A well built compost pile can get quite hot, killing weed seeds and pathogens in manure. To turn the pile, unhook the wires holding it together or lift it up. Reform the wire circle next to the existing pile which should hold its shape. Use the fork to move the pile into the newly formed space adding new material as you like. Moisten with the hose if needed.

Age is not a good indication of stability since the rate of decomposition is determined by nutrient balance, mixing, moisture, and aeration.

 

Composting Links:
Missouri Botanical Gardens
http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/factsheet.asp?code=12

MO State  Department of Natural Resources
http://www.dnr.mo.gov/env/swmp/composting/compost1.htm

 

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Fourth Annual Electronic Recycling Event

Pictures from the event: 1, 2, 3

Co-Sponsored by City of Florissant Environmental Quality Commission And St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley Collected by Midwest Recycling Center

Saturday, September 25th, 2010
8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

On the St. Louis Community College Florissant Valley Lower Parking Lot by the track

$15.00 for TVs and $10 for Laptops & Computer Monitors
No Charge for all other
Household Electronics
& Appliances

                                                                

Computer Peripherals	Miscellaneous
CD, CDRW drives	Battery back-ups
CPUs	Data cartridges
Hard drives	Digital cameras
Laptops, notebooks	DVD/video players
Monitors	Electronic game devices
Printers	Pocket PCs
Routers	Rechargeable batteries*
Scanners	Televisions
Servers	Household Appliances
Zip, DVD, floppy drives
	Communication Equipment
Office Equipment	Phone Adapters and chargers
Adding machines	Answering machines
Copiers	Cell phones
Fax machines	Corded phones
Multifunction machines	Cordless phones
	Pagers

For More Information Call Florissant Health Dept 839-7654

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2010 Valley of Flowers

The EQC had a table at this years' Valley of Flowers. Here are some pictures from the event.

Pics: 1 / 2 / 3 (Members left to right: Rob, Emma, Pam, Matt and Nancy)

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Trash Bash 2010

On Saturday, March 27th, Confluence Greenway and Trailnet Organizations conducted their 2010 Trash Bash in the North County Area. 600 volunteers registered to help with the cleanup this year. Many of the volunteers helped clean up areas of Florissant around Coldwater Creek. Ronald Williams, a member of the Florissant Environmental Quality Commission, participated in this year's cleanup. He noted that the most prevalent kinds of trash he found around and in Coldwater Creek were plastic grocery bags. Because such bags do not biodegrade or break down and disintegrate in the soil, they simply blow around the neighborhoods, get stuck in trees and float down streams. Besides being an eyesore and blight upon our landscape, they often are ingested by wildlife like waterfowl, land birds and fishes, causing them to choke to death. Our volunteers were able to pick up most of these bags that were lying on the shores, but many of those stuck high up in the trees and in Coldwater Creek could not be reached! The Trash Bash is a yearly event that allows many dedicated volunteers to do what they can to help clean up the environment, but it takes a whole community working together to keep our neighborhoods clean. If we all pitch in, perhaps next year we might be pleasantly surprised when the next Trash Bash takes place in 2011!

Check out a picture from the event!

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Resource Management Co Trip

On 4/8/2010 the Environmental Quality Commission and several council members took a tour of the Resource Management Co, which recycles all the materials for the City of Florissant. Here are some pictures from that tour.

Pics: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17

Picture #1 is what initially happens to plastic water bottles when recycled, and Picture #2 is the final step of recycling plastic water bottles which can be used for carpeting material.  All remaining pictures are from inside the recycling center.

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Ten Ways to Save Money at the Pump

1. Drive Smart! When you drive aggressively, you waste gas and put others at risk. Observe the speed limit, avoid rapid acceleration and braking, and maintain a constant speed on the road.

2. Keep Your Car in Shape. A well-tuned car burns less gasoline. So make sure that you get your oil and air filters changed regularly, and that your tires are always properly inflated.

3. Change Your Commute. Sitting in rush hour traffic burns gas and gets you nowhere. If possible, adjust your work schedule so that you avoid rush hour traffic. Even better, and if your employer allows it, think about telecommuting. If you can't telecommute full-time, try for one or two days a week.

4. Use Public Transportation. Look into the public-transportation options in your area, and use them as much as possible.

5. Try to Combine Errands. According to the Department of Energy, several short trips taken from a cold start can use twice as much fuel as a longer, multipurpose trip covering the same distance when the engine is warm.

6. Go for a Ride or Walk. Rather than drive your car to the corner store or a friend's house, walk or ride your bike there. Studies show that this approach has the added advantage of reducing your risk of heart disease.

7. Carpool. Carpool or use ride-share programs if you can. This might also enable you to shorten the time of your commute by using High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes.

8. Pack Light. According to the Department of Energy, a loaded roof rack on your car can decrease fuel economy by approximately five percent. Also, every 100 pounds you carry in a car reduces a typical car's fuel economy by one to two percent. So, when you go on vacation or a long car trip, put everything you can inside your vehicle, and pack light

9. Think Hybrid. The most fuel-efficient vehicles on the road today are hybrid-electric cars. A hybrid combines an electric motor with a conventional, but cleaner, gasoline-powered engine. Over its lifetime, a 50-mile per gallon hybrid Toyota Prius will use half as much gas, and release half as much global-warming pollution, as a 23-mpg Pontiac Grand Prix.

10. Consider Sharing. Rather than buy a new car, sign up for membership with a car-sharing program such as Flexcar or Zipcar. These programs allow you to reserve and drive cars by the hour -- and they cover the cost of the vehicle, insurance, gas, parking, and maintenance.

Bonus: Write Your Leaders. Urge them to raise fuel economy standards to 40 miles per gallon. Modern technology can make our cars and trucks go farther on a gallon of gas. Taking this step would save nearly 4 million barrels of oil a day -- more oil than we currently import from the Persian Gulf. And by saving on gas, you would save nearly $2,000 at the pump over the life of your car.

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Helpful Tips for Reducing CO2

The Bad News is:

The average car driven 10,000 miles in a year releases 5.5 tons (11,000 pounds) of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The Good News is…

We can all take steps to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. 

Action:	Pounds of CO2  removed:
Replace 3 frequently used light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs.	300 pounds
Inflate your tires	250 pounds
Change your air filter monthly	800 pounds
Run a FULL dishwasher	100 pounds
Lower heater setting 2 degrees	1000 pounds
Raise AC up 2 degrees	1000 pounds
Keep water heater below 120o	550  pounds
Take shorter showers	350 pounds
Install low-flow shower head	350 pounds
Buy minimally packaged goods	1200 pounds
Plant a tree	2000 pounds
Insulate your water heaters	1000 pounds
Caulk and weather strip doorways and windows	1700 pounds
Use a push mower	80 pounds
Unplug un-used electronics	1000 pounds
TOTAL CO2 removed	11,600 pounds

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