The East Landfill overfloweth with branch and thistle, ye of the garden may see soon it overcome the gardeners brewy. 

In plainer terms, the City has so much yard waste, that they haven't been able to turn it into compost fast enough.

This topic came up at the last Swift current city council meeting, where it was agreed that to catch up to the growing mound of clippings and hedge trimmings, they would alter the way they make compost, to speed up the process. 

Keegan Story, manager of environmental services for the City of Swift Current, attempted to weed out the confusion of how they became tangled up in the branches of this project.

"Previous composting operations were unable to utilize all of the incoming yard waste," established Story. "Therefore, the excess yard waste materials have been stockpiled at the landfill."

The plan is to award GFL Environmental Inc. the composting operation contract, to the tune of a little under $84,000, to make compost of a lesser quality at a faster rate. 

Year to year, the landfill has been taking 4,000 m3 of yard waste. While the previous method of turning that refuse into reusable made high-quality end products, it was a long, and laborious process. 

This new process will save time, and manpower, and utilize a minimum of 5,000 m3 of yard waste throughout the season. 

Some may wonder why not simply keep making the high-quality compost, and throw out the rest. After all, the Landfill is where things get thrown out. 

"By diverting yard waste from being landfilled, the compost program has an approximate airspace savings value of $200,000 annually," explained Story. 

By continuing to keep the yard waste products out of the landfills, also helps the City get more in line with greenhouse gas emissions. Organic wastes in Canada's landfills make up 23 per cent of the country's annual methane emissions. Methane is often recognized as 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. 

Since the landfill has already used the compost program to divert those potential emissions, they are prepared for future restrictions. 

"There is potential for financial penalties if yard waste were to be landfilled," confirmed Story.