Beachwood Continues Moves Toward Greener Pastures

One Beachwood resident's brush is the city's reusable, organic treasure.

Each year the city does its part to be a good steward of the environment by picking up brush and leaves left at the curb by residents doing yard work. On any given day, crews are out picking up brush and taking it to the city's Compost Facility on East Shaker Road, said Public Parks and Grounds Superintendent Chris Arrietta.

"The facility is EPA regulated and we collect all of the brush throughout the city for the year and double grind it down," Arrietta said. "What we do is sell and reuse it. Everything we pick up will be reused."

The brush is collected through November and then the contractor comes in to grind in January. It'll all be processed by March 1, Arrietta said. Last year, the city collected 3,560 cubic yards of leaves, 10,645 cubic yards of brush in bulk and made 3,220 cubic yards of double-shredded mulch.

"We sell the excess mulch to the contractor and use the rest in the city," Arrietta said. "They buy it back and that covers a large cost of grinding it."

The cost of paying the contractor and how much the city gets in return is really close to an even flush.

"We pay the contractors a $5,225 grinding fee," Arrietta said. "They pay us $1,000 for our leaves and $3,680 for our mulch so our total invoice ends up being $545."

Community Services Director Karen Carmen said the city has gained recognition from Cuyahoga County Solid Waste for the brush recycling program.

"It's truly amazing," Carmen said of the process. "It's decomposing organic material that gets turned and recycled and it's an income producing source for us. A lot of people think they just dump that stuff somewhere but it's being used throughout the city and a big portion is sold to landscapers."

City Council is also working toward implementing an automated recycling program, similar to the automated trash pickup. Already residents can place recyclable materials in blue bags and leave them at the curb, but council wants cans that any recyclable material can be thrown into.

"The program is going forward," said Councilman Brian Linick. "It's just a matter of ordering the cans. We have a truck that goes around and picks up recyclables and it's a little more work for the residents to bag those but this will be a can that's a different color and size and you can through whatever recyclable you want in there."

Linick hopes the recycle cans will end up replacing the need for the garbage cans because people will realize they can recycle just about anything.

"While we certainly are doing these things to be good stewards of the envirnoment and the planet, most of these are just good business decisions," Linick said. "Energy costs are rising and we can mitigate those costs by reducing dependency and lessing our impact. It's a win-win situation for any community."

Linick has already proposed having special parking spaces for hybrid car drivers at community buildings, however council scrapped the idea this week. But Linick has other green ideas.

"Going forward, one of the biggest targets I want to look at is our fleet of vehicles and incorporating alternative fuel such as electricity or biodiesel," Linick said. "We have an aging fleet. The last time I looked, almost 40 of our vehicles are a decade old. It's just not good for the environment."

Changing the fleet out would mean purchasing new cars with alternative fuel capacities which would in turn save the city money in today's increasingly expensive gas. Linick understands there is a cost associated with changing out the fleet, but nothing has been put in place yet.

On a smaller scale, Linick hopes to bring forward the idea of building refueling stations in the city for electric cars. A place where drivers or people passing through can plug in.

"Right now there's not a huge market for electric cars out there, but as it becomes bigger and bigger, you'll see recharging stations popping up in places," Linick said. "That's something I'd like to see the city look at also."

"This is an exciting time to be a part of the city," Linick said. "We have the ability to make a positive impact on future generations."

Read more about the city's recycling and rubbish pickup on its website.