August 16th, 2024
Did you know that the city turns your yard waste into mulch?
When you put your yard waste out on the curb, the Streets and Maintenance Department collects it and brings it to our Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s permitted Class IV Compost Facility, where it is turned into mulch for city properties.
Your yard waste starts at pile A, where all the yard waste from you, your neighbors, and city-owned property is combined. Decomposition begins as the pile grows throughout the summer and fall. Come winter, Pile A is put into a tub grinder, becoming Pile B. Tub grinding occurs sometime between January and early March of each year, depending on the weather.
Pile B is left to decompose for another year before being put through the tub grinder again. This twice-ground mixture is now mulch and ready to be applied to city properties (Pile C). Next time you’re at the Community Park or admiring the flower beds around town, know that the mulch was all generated in our community.
Streets and Maintenance also collects leaves off of our roadways and uses them to fertilize city land. Piles Y and Z are decomposing leaves. The piles are turned twice a year to expedite the composting process.
Why collect yard waste?
The State of Ohio banned disposing of yard waste in landfills in 1994 to prevent the rapid production of methane, an explosive and greenhouse gas. Thus, we are legally required to separate out our yard waste from the rest of our refuse.
Environmentally, yard waste collection and composting has many other benefits. It also reduces flooding and protects local water quality. When you collect your yard waste, you prevent it from blocking storm drains or streams. Dumping yard waste and grass into streams can degrade local water quality, as excessive nutrients can harm aquatic life.
What can I put in my yard waste?
NO grass or animal waste
Grass clippings can be left on the lawn instead of bagged.
YES Weeds, twigs, small branches, and other brush.
Please bundle small branches and other brush. Bundles must be 3ft or shorter and not heavier than 50 pounds. Please tie brush with natural fiber cord (cotton, linen, or twine) so that the entire bundle is compostable. Bundles with plastic, wire, or nylon cord will not be accepted.
Please use paper bags for smaller yard waste items. Yard waste will not be accepted if it is placed in cans or in plastic bags.
Limit yard waste to six (6) bundles or bags per pick up. This yard waste pick up program is designed to handle typical residential yard trimmings. It is not designed to pick up excessive amounts of debris left by a tree trimming service or landscaping company.
When is yard waste collection?
December, January, and February: First full week of the month on regular refuse pickup days.
March through November: Every week on regular refuse pick-up days.
I don’t have curbside collection, can I still participate?
Yes! You can drop off yard waste at the Municipal City Garage (945 South Main Street) on the first Saturday of each month from April through January, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
For more information, visit Recycling & Solid Waste.
July 17th, 2024
You composted! Now What?
The City of Oxford has a Food Scrap Composting program, where all residents (students included!) can drop off their kitchen scraps and certified compostable materials to be proceeded by GoZero, Oxford’s compost hauler.
But what’s the process?
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2. Go Zero services our bins weekly and transports the waste to Logan County. |
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3. Once in Logan County, our compost is moved to an open top semi trailer. |
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4. At the farm, food scraps are combined with agricultural manure and other organic material. |
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5. The mixture is placed in a 12x12x200 ft wind row and moved every 1-2 weeks using a large excavator. |
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6. After 3 months and being send through a sieve, the compost is ready for agricultural use! |
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7. After 9 more months (12 total) and a smaller sieve, the additional compost is ready to use in flower beds! |
Why compost?
Composting is like recycling, but for our food scraps, plant material, and other living matter (aka organic matter). Because of this, composting is also referred to as organics recycling.
Composting expedites aerobic decomposition and allows the nutrients from our composted material to be reused as fertilizer. Aerobic decomposition uses oxygen to breakdown the organic material. Landfills use anaerobic decomposition, which is much slower and does not involve oxygen. In the absence of oxygen, the waste decomposing in a landfill produces methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. So, when you compost, you are reducing the greenhouse gas emissions from landfilling (read more about landfill emissions in week 1’s blog).
What can I compost? *click image to download PDF. medium.jpg?t=202603250600150)
Where is the drop-off site in Oxford ?
The TRI Recreation Center at 6025 Fairfield Road. The bins are located in the parking lot, along the outfield fence of the baseball field. These bins are available 24/7.
What’s the difference between backyard composting and the GoZero program?
Backyard composting is a great choice for raw fruit and veggie scraps, egg shells, and coffee grounds. However, animal products (such as meat, dairy, bones) should not be composted in backyards. This is because backyard piles rarely get large enough and hot enough to compost animal products. Animal products can also be an attraction for other animals (i.e. racoons, possums, etc). GoZero’s program accepts animal products and certified compostable plastics that cannot be composted in backyards.
Learn more about backyard composting from the Environmental Protection Agency.
How do I start composting?
The easiest way to compost is to save your compostable items in a container lined with a compostable bag. The best way to keep smells at bay is to keep your compost cold. Consider storing it in the freezer or outside during the winter months. If you store it outside, make sure to keep it in an enclosed container, such as a 5G bucket with a lid, to deter animals.
Once your container is full, head to the TRI (6025 Fairfield Road) and drop it off at one of our neon green bins!
Compostable bags can be purchased online or are typically in stock at our local Kroger.
Does composting actually reduce emissions?
Yes! It is estimated that the emissions from one day of driving (using national averages) is equivalent to diverting 22 lbs of food scraps for industrial composting (like GoZero) or only 7 lbs of food scraps for backyard composting!
Why do we send our compost to Fulton County? That seems far.
It is. Large-scale composting is an emerging market, and a facility is not yet available in Southwest Ohio. The City of Oxford is collaborating with regional partners to increase composting in SW Ohio.
Have more questions?
Visit the City’s Webpage, Go Zero’s webpage, or submit a question through the city’s website.
Special thank you to GoZero for their collaboration and educational materials.
Zero waste efforts are partially funded by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
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July 3rd, 2024
You recycled! Now What?
Have you ever wondered what happens when you toss an item into the recycling bin? Thankfully, Hamilton County Recycling Resource has got us covered! While Oxford is not in Hamilton County, Rumpke, our recycler, is and services the greater Cincinnati area. Thus, the process is the same whether you recycle something in Oxford, on campus, or in a neighboring community!
Toss it:Sort it:
Reinvent it:
Don't have curbside recycling?
No fear! There are two public recycling drop-off points in Oxford, funded by Bulter County Solid Waste Management District. The same recycling rules apply for drop-off and curbside. The locations are:
- Miami University Ditmer Parking Lot: 4935 Oxford-Trenton Rd./St. Rt. 73 (across from John Brown Stables)
- Miami University Culinary Support Center: 426 Wells Mills Dr. (behind T.J. Maxx)
Drop-off is available 24/7, 365!
Not sure what to put in the bins?
Visit Rumpke's accepted items list!
Want to recycle even more items?
Rumpke and Hefty have partnered to accept “hard-to-recycle" plastics in your curbside bin through the Hefty ReNew program! Through this program, residents and businesses can now recycle plastic food bags and liners, as well as bubble wrap, foam block packaging, and much more. Items must be clean, dry, and free from foil lining.
To participate, request a free starter or purchase left orange bags, fill the bag with accepted materials, and then place in your recycling (curbside or drop off). When it gets to Rumpke’s Material Recovery Facility, the orange bags will be separated and sent to Hefty for recycling.
Skeptical of recycling?
Not all recycling is treated equally; some materials can be recycled and reused more than others. Plastics can be recycled 2-3 times before their quality decreases, whereas metals (e.g., aluminum) can be recycled infinitely. So, if you want to be a super recycler, swap out the plastic bottles for cans or glass! However, if you do use a plastic bottle and recycle it, trust that Rumpke will process it properly.
Have additional items you want to recycle but not sure how?
A special thank you to Hamilton County Recycling and Resource for their collaboration and educational materials. You can find more of their resources here.
Zero waste efforts are partially funded by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
June 19th, 2024
Why not send it all to the landfill?
It’s easier to just throw it all in the trash. Is it even worth recycling? Does composting food scraps actually make a difference? I don’t have the time to keep up with all the recycling rule changes. Where does all our garbage go anyways?
We hear you.
Recycling and composting can be confusing. We are here to make the process easier and share why it’s worth it. During June and July, we will share the “behind the scenes” operations of our residential waste management system.
We have many tools in our waste management toolbox: reducing waste at the source, recycling, food scrap composting, yard waste composting, and landfilling. Together, these tools keep our community clean. 
In 2023, Oxford’s households sent 75.6% of their waste to the landfill, equating to 4992 tons of material. The other 24.4% was split among recycling (12.1%, 798 tons), food scrap composting (0.3%, 17.7 tons), and yard waste composting (12.1%, 787 tons). These numbers are only for Oxford’s residential properties and don’t include businesses, large apartment complexes, or university waste!
2023 Climate Graphs (6)
Why not use the landfill for everything?
While landfilling is the most common tool we use, it should be the last one we reach for. Landfills have a limit as to how much waste they can accept, prevent nutrients from returning to the soil, and produce greenhouse gas emissions. 
When a landfill is full, a new one is built. We want to delay the filling of a landfill for many reasons, but primarily because no one wants to live near a landfill, let alone multiple. Rumpke Waste and Recycling, Oxford’s waste hauler, has already begun building its new landfill, making the closing and opening of a new landfill pertinent to our community. Read more about the new landfill site.
When organic waste is disposed of in a landfill it produces methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change and worsens local air quality. Methane is more than 28 times more powerful than carbon dioxide and has a shorter “lifespan” than carbon dioxide (EPA, The Importance of Methane). Thus, reducing methane emissions would have a significant and immediate effect on the global warming potential of our emissions.
However, Rumpke is putting the methane to good use and reducing emissions in the process. Rumpke’s Sanitary Landfill in Colerain Township is the world’s largest landfill gas-to-pipeline energy production facility. This means that some of the methane produced from the landfill is being used to power homes in southwest Ohio. In 2017, 25,000 homes were powered by methane collected from the landfill (Rumpke, Landfills as a Powerful Source).
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Rumpke Provided Images by Reena Murphy
Wait—if the methane from landfilling is being used for energy, what’s the big deal?
Great question. Not all of the methane (and other greenhouse gases) from landfilling can be used for energy. The gas that is collected needs to be refined, reducing the amount that can be used for energy. Furthermore, not all the methane that is produced from landfilling is being captured. Thus, reducing the amount of waste we send to the landfill is still the best option. Rumpke has made incredible strides in reducing its emissions (see chart), but landfilling is still an emissions-intensive process.
Note* the chart depicts emissions in terms of Carbon Dioxide Equivalents (CO2e). Methane emissions, along with other gasses, are included in this calculation.
Learn more about Rumpke’s landfilling process on their website.
Okay, so how do we reduce the amount of waste going into the landfill?
The best thing you can do is to produce less waste. Follow the 5 Rs: Refuse (avoid buying single-use items or items with lots of packaging), Reduce (purchase less non-recyclable or compostable materials), Reuse (use an item again for the same purpose), Repurpose (use an item again for a different purpose), and Recycle (separate the item so it can be processed and turned into something new).
Recycling and composting (also known as organics recycling) are preferred to landfilling because they promote a circular economy. This means that waste can be recycled and turned into raw materials for a different process.
Throughout the summer, we’ll explore recycling, food scrap composting, and yard waste composting in depth. Stay tuned.
Special thanks to Rumpke Waste and Recycling for their collaboration and photos.
Zero waste efforts are partially funded by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.