By Ron Brown
 
November 16, 2009
 
MERLIN, Ore. - With open burning currently off limits, a Josephine County program to turn yard waste and sewage sludge into a useful product is in full-swing.
 
The Jo-Gro facility, at the old Merlin landfill, turns leaves, limbs and lawn clippings into useful landscaping products. It's ground up and mixed with sludge from the Grants Pass Wastewater Treatment Plant and composted.
 
"What we do is we put it in what we call static aerated piles, and we inject air into it. And heat it up. The microbes do their thing and they cook over a period of time, 90 to 120 days," said John Adame with Jo-Gro.
 
Long temperature probes in the compost piles illustrate the heat that builds up as the organic material decomposes. In three or four months it's dry and ready to use as yard fertilizer and mulch. For local residents trying to clean up their yards, Jo-Gro solves a lot of problems.
 
A large pile of wood waste is also being recycled. Old pallets, lumber and plywood is ground up and becomes fuel for biomass in White City, where it is burned to produce electricity.
 
Adame says about 8,000 cubic yards of Jo-Gro is produced here every year. It costs a dollar a cubic yard to dump yard waste, with a two-dollar minimum charge. A yard is about the size of a full size pickup load.
 
Dry, composted Jo-Gro mulch is for sale for $11 a yard.