Comments (0) | |

Saturday, Jun. 28, 2008

Storm debris cleanup means extra mulch in Macon, Bibb

The cleanup efforts from the Mother's Day tornado have produced massive piles of debris and tons of mulch at sites across Bibb County.

Some of the mulch will end up in the landfill, and some of it will be recycled. It's partly up to the cleanup companies hired by Bibb County and the city of Macon what to do with it, though the governments retain some say over the final use.

At the moment, free mulch is not available for your garden, and there are no plans to offer free fire wood, city and county officials said.

The city plans to use some of the debris being chopped up at Southwest High School as a mixer in the city landfill. DRC Emergency Services, which won the city's cleanup contract, can do what it likes with most of the rest, as long as it recycles the mulch as opposed to putting it in the landfill or burying it, interim Public Works Director Bill Causey said.

There's another huge pile for the company to grind up in the Bloomfield area, Causey said. Eventually, some mulch will be made available to area residents, Causey said.

As for the county, its main pile is off Fulton Mill Road. Crowder Disaster Recovery was hired to deal with it, and the company was still deciding this week what to do with the mulch, Bibb County Engineer Ken Sheets said.

Company officials said this week they are "close" to finding a place to recycle the mulch, Sheets said.

The mulch doesn't have much value. Causey said paper mills might pay about $16 a ton for it, which city spokesman Andrew Blascovich said isn't worth the cost of transporting. Graphics Packaging, a local company, has offered to take much of the mulch but won't pay for it.

Everything is being chipped, because that's the most economical way to deal with the debris, Blascovich said.

To contact writer Travis Fain, call 744-4213.