Turning yard waste into a resource

Today my street changed a little bit. A majestic 100-year-old sugar maple tree had to come down - it was diseased and old and ready to fall over, even so, it gave me the sads.

As the tree service was grinding up the smaller pieces and cutting the trunk into manageable lengths, another neighbor and I had an epiphany while gawking at the process. He asked what they were going to do with all of the mulched wood. They were going to bring it to the dump. I asked what they were going to do with the mammoth sections of trunk. Same answer. To the dump. My neighbor said "I could use that mulch, why don't you just dump it in my driveway." And I mentioned that my brother-in-law across the street would gladly take those trunk sections for a woodworking project.

10 minutes later, he had a free pile of hardwood mulch worth a few hundred dollars, my brother-in-law had enough raw material to keep him busy for a long time, and the tree service lowered their operating costs by eliminating a trip to the dump. This level of coordination and communication usually doesn't happen. But technology and greater communication among neighbors could easily enable this type of win/win exchange to happen on a more regular basis.

In fact, Minnetonka's public works department is already exploring ways to use the expected glut of dying ash trees, and turn this waste into a valuable commodity. This story is definitely worth a listen. The city of Minnetonka has ambitious sustainability goals, and these types of solutions will help us achieve them. Look around your neighborhood, are there ways to collaborate with your neighbors or local businesses, and turn something from garbage into gold?