diapers and pet poop? wow, I am not sure I would feel at all safe since you would have no idea how long that has had to process. There are certain organisms in cat and human feces that could cause you harm if they have not been killed. Composting sheep and goat waste I believe is fine. Does the city offer any kind of leaf mold that is separate from the "green bin" you mention?

Well there are 2 ways to look at it. One way is that everything goes back to compost, even baby poop. It does sound rather unsanitary, and that's the other way to look at it. You could use some and compost it further to make sure it has cooked a good while. Instead of putting it directly on your garden. I have used our city compost, which supposedly is just vegetative yard waste, but there is typically alot of garbage in there, like squashed soda cans, and other bits of metal, leather, etc. So I suggest you be very careful and use thick gloves every time. Also maybe be sure to have a tetanus shot updated. On the other hand, if you have access to the goat/sheep manure and you really don't need the city compost, why take a chance?

Don't know about the leaf mold for compost, but the raw materials used in the city's composting program does not sound to inviting to me.
I wonder if there is another borough where the compost is cleaner?
I do not know why they allow people to place their pet's poo in the Green bin program.

I mentioned something similar to the owner of a local nursery and he said that it may not be a good idea because you have no idea what kind of chemicals could be in it, lawn and pest chemicals that is.

I use only the leaf compost from my location. At another location in the city I can get dump truck loads of Class A Sludge compost for free... I am not getting this ever as I have no faith that all the pathogens are killed. Just yesterday city administrator had piece in the paper about the free stuff..... but never mentioned it as a veggie garden admendment.
Another place they have here is the grass clipping drop site. I read on these forums that some of the commercial lawn contractors put pesticides on grass that may not break down without extreme heat and extreme time. With other things availible I have to choose those I have a secure feeling about.. Leaves.

Found this add on "leaf compost" for my city. How can I be sure it is only leaf compost?

Here is a link that might be useful: leaf compost

Theoretically, if the material has been properly composted, you shouldn't have any worries. A proper, sufficiently hot and complete composting process will eliminate or breakdown pathogens and most chemical pesticides. That's the entire point of compost. The trick is in knowing how well your municipality manages the composting process. Visiting the 'plant' or yard or whatever could provide some assurances. Or you can have the product tested. FWIW, most commercial or municipal composting operations tend to be more efficient in generating adequate heat and maintaining it for a suffcient length of time than do home composters......it's all a matter of scale.

Not sure about Canada but in the US, the extremely persistant and compost-resistant chemical pesticides are restricted in use, so not available to homeowners and contractors/agriculturists that do use them are severely limited in how they may dispose of pesticide treated clippings or yard waste. They are prohibited from inclusion with any municipal, community or commercial composting operation. Canada tends to be even more conservative when it comes to pesticides, so I doubt one has too much to worry about in that regard.

Well ad says "leaf" compost. But to be sure it is a compostable component is a good question. For me it would be worth a look if I were close but I don't know your locations.
While my scource is loading me I'm pulling out different loneleaf needles, and palm type flower items that I have to extract later. Hope this is a case that they will work with you on.

unless you can drive by regular and observe what they pile up and take a close look in the background of tv pic's when they are doing a promotion program for viewers then from what i have seen and heard (and this will not be an aussie oddity, all local governments have stuff they need to dispose of) lots of stuff can go into it.

i'm also not suggesting don't use it, so long as you have knowledge about what may be in it, from where i stand no good asking those in charge for the full story as they work under cover of darkness so to speak.

anyhow into the sewerage goes hsopital waste, light industrial waste and all sorts of residues in or solids, along with various chemicals including acids to unblock drains, the soilds are composted at the sewerage farm, this humusy stuff is then added to the green waste compost they creat at the refuse recycle centre.

along with medium grade liquid industrial waste collected in those tanker truck (saw this happening in the background of a tv shot), what they chip up is all old furniture, along with that green waste you collect and dump, and old fences get included some of this timber is CCA treated old as it might be.

so baby naplins could be the least of concerns. in our state because they can't afford to build an incinerator, we send and pay to have our worst industrial waste incinerated in another state, this dangerous liquid is trained in the older black tanker carriages through small towns next to main highways and over rivers etc. i have no doubt to lessen the bill our state takes back some of their medium liquid waste to mix into that very compost up here, costs the same to run an empty train back as it does a full one carriages probably sit better on the line when full also.

so might matter not whether your town has any industry they could get paid to dispose of other town waste. all happens in the dead of night while we sleep.

yep i still use small amounts of it when i need a planting medium in the garden, after all it is the base of all potting mixes. over here we may find bits of plastic wrap in it, dunno others who use it in large quantities from the tip may find more, they allow us 2 cubic meters free per year, collect it yourself.

oh the night the liquid waste truck dumped his load in the background the tv interviewer did ask about toxin levels and he was told the epa monitors that and they always fall below the standard, whatever the standard maybe i dunno?

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page

Pesticides are banned in my province

I'll give "leaf compost" a go but nothing else beyond that!

I personally wouldn't touch any city or municipality's compost with a ten foot pole. Unfortunately, there are many many people who wouldn't care what they dumped in it.

My advice would be to start your own compost pile if you haven't already. That way you know exactly what is and isn't in it. Since you're in zone 6a you should be able to generate a fair amount in no time.

If you don't think you have sufficient material yourself, ask your neighbours. I'm sure they'd be glad to give you their grass clippings and leaves. Some may even be willing to collect their kitchen vegetable scraps for you =:)

Good luck !

For the life of me I don't know what you folks are so concerned about, I manage the sewer system for our town and have seen everything from the beginning to the end (of the system). Hasn't hurt me yet :-) Can I get a EEEEEWWWW YUCK?

Are your leaves mixed with stuff before they get to the dump? Here's the setup where I live (Actually it's not where I live---it's a nearby town that I learned had a nice composting setup.):

{{gwi:317625}}

Homeowners take their own yard waste to the site, then I go and bring it back to my place to make compost. For years I only took leaves and pumpkins, fearing chemical treatments, but eventually the bags of steaming grass clippings got to me, and I started bringing them home, too. I try to avoid the greenest, lushest clippings, assuming they are more likely to have been chemically managed. Primarily, I've decided not to think about it. Behind the mountain of yard waste is the prior season's yard waste, now composted. I rarely take that, preferring to see the ingredients that go into my compost. I did, however, have the local extension service test the finished compost for lead, and I can't remember what else they tested, and the results regarding that were reassuring. My biggest concern is pesticide residue on the grass clippings. My second biggest concern is bring home diseased leaves (many of which do not get composted at all; I use them intact as mulch on lawn areas) that might pass something onto the trees in the woods around me. I brought home blighted maple leaves last year, then ended up contacting a man from the university regarding my concerns. He said, in that instance---maple trees---the blight was so widespread I shouldn't worry about it. Plus the disease was not fatal to maples.

If you have the option of visiting the drop-off place for your town, you might check it out. So far this year, I've gotten leaves, grass clippings mixed with chipped leaves, tons of apples, NOT ONE PUMPKIN YET; I blame mctoon, tons of dahlia bulbs, hydrangea blossoms, and the best score yet---a pile of dirty, blemished, black-spotted pears lying in tire tracks filled with oily compost leachate seeping from the pile. I gathered up the filthy pears and took them home for my chickens. My dog fought the chickens for the pears, and after seeing the especially pleased look on her face, I began to wonder just how good those pears were. I ended up taking the greasy pears into the house, washing them, peeling them, offering them to my mother (with full disclosure) and having one myself.

One of the most delicious pears I've ever had in my life! I ended up going back out to the yard and taking back the best looking ones from the chickens. I am very tempted to write to the editorial page of the Bangor Daily News asking "who the heck are you that keeps putting those DeLiCious pears in the Brewer dump, for pete's sake? Are you totally mad?"

Kokos,

Our municipality (Halifax, Nova Scotia) has been using the green cart system for quite some time now. It is managed by Green Waste Systems - ie. private business. I have used their product, but this was only after I placed a visit (unannounced) one day to check things out. It is truly amazing the process the waste goes through to becoming compost in those facilities. Not just as simple as dumping greens and browns and walking away that's for sure!!

I would encourage you to visit your municipality's facility and ask questions. Probably the best thing you could do.

It frustrates me that some folks are saying not to use it. Here we are in today's world trying to get people to compost and for those who don't have the space - such as in cities - we have found a way of diverting millions of tonnage from our landfills and make good use of the shrinked result - compost. So what are we suppose to do??? Ask these people to divert to help reduce landfills, then get it composted just to sit there? Defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

Since using the city compost a few years back I have been able to create compost piles which now feed my gardens. The only thing the city gets from me is protein items, breads (yes, Annpat, there is another one like you...), and noxious weeds in my green bin. But I have space to compost whereas others do not. Lots of my friends from the city use the compost produce by GWS and their gardens are fabulous!!

tiffy, thanks for that nicely reasoned response that has the validity of some firsthand experience to go along with it!

For the life of me, I don't understand what the fuss is about, either. Seems to me that what goes into the compost as 'raw' material is of far less a concern than what the end product is. The entire purpose of the composting process is to breakdown chemical compounds into their elemental forms regardless of if those compounds originate as pesticides or pathogens. Or any other organically based material. Why this should not be the case at a city-owned, 'green' waste recycling facility is a bit of a mystery to me.

Studies have shown that these types of composting operations tend to be more efficient at the composting process than the average homeowner/backyard composter. This is primarily because the larger scale of the operation tends to create hotter and more actively worked piles and hotter, more active piles result in a faster and more completely composted end product. And one that is more or less free of disease pathogens and chemical contamination.

Short of having the individual product tested - and this applies to home composters as well - you will never have 100% certainty about the 'purity' of your compost. But you can get a lot of reassurance by visiting the facility and see how they manage their composting process. And inspecting the finished product before purchasing or hauling home. You know about composting - ask some pointed questions and get the answers you need to make an informed decision.

Personally, if there was free-for-the-taking municipally provided compost available in my area, I wouldn't think twice about taking advantage of it. Unfortunately, the same type of recycling/composting program the OP and tiffy refer to is also present in my area but the end product is NOT free. And it is not even inexpensive. But it is a wonderful, clean, rich compost and the cost comes from keeping all that stuff out of area landfills. Pretty much a win-win in my book!

I have not used our municipal compost yet. It is a mixture of already well cooked biosolids from the municipal sewage treatment plant, shredded wood, and other compostables.

I have no problem with the biosolids, since I'm not doing certified organic agriculture; for me the deal breaker is the shredded wood. The municipality plans to buy a machine to screen the finished compost and send the coarse matter back to the compost pile for more composting.

Other gardeners who used this year's batch are complaining nothing grows well in it. The compost program had a bad "stench" episode in the winter and I think the pile blew off so much nitrogen that the finished compost is actually nitrogen deficient.

Is your available compost Class A Sludge Compost? I have yet to use this or get real interested in it. Several reasons, any live pathogens? to much oversize filler wood chips that are too fresh and will tie up nitrogen, and the old toilet smell.
My barber and I had this conversation Thursday and I told him I did not want him growing his melons in my poop and I did not want to grow my tomatoes in his poop. Class A, I feel needs to have a disclaimer not to garden for raw edible and or below ground growing veggies. Just me I guess...

Assuming this question is for me...

"Is your available compost Class A Sludge Compost?"

I don't know about classes. The engineer in charge of monitoring at the sewage treatment plant says the fecal coliform load is higher in the compost than in the sludge input to the compost. He attributes the increase to the addition of livestock manure.

The mineral content of this particular sludge is extremely closely monitored, and I have no concerns there.

I have been using compost for landscape soil restoration, not for growing food.

Yes, the shredded wood not only is an annoyance, but its decomposition is a nitrogen sink. It has to be screened out before the compost is used as a soil amendment, or else additional nitrogen is needed.

Most city & county yard waste site are not mixed with house/home waste. Anyone braking the rules are fined. This is not to protect the buyers/composer, but so the YW will brake down & rot away to nothing if WE do not haul it off.
However, I pick mine up off the curb, so to help the city & so I will know what I have. Some times the home owner will come out to see what I am doing. I tell them I use it on my organic Tomatoes. Then when the tomatoes come in I stop by & give them a few & any vegetables that I have abundance of.I never have had some one try to sale me waste or tell me to leave it for the city.