Town of Ste. Anne gives Steinbach 2 green thumbs up for promoting mulching

The Town of Ste. Anne is encouraging its residents to keep grass clippings on their lawns. 

Operations Manager John Desrochers says mulching is a great way to help our lawns and the landfill. 

“I think the best message out there is if people can keep the grass clippings on their own yard, it’s better for the soil, it’s better for their yard if they can keep those nutrients on their yard.” 

Desrocher says they appreciate the work Steinbach is doing to inform residents and to promote mulching as a superior way of dealing with grass clippings. 

“A lot of that mulch ends up at the landfill site that we have to deal with, and the biggest challenge is having to pick up and haul it. It creates a lot of extra work, and if we could limit some of that, it would help.” 

At this time, Ste. Anne residents can bring their yard waste to the curb every Monday and town staff will pick it up and deliver it to a site just outside of town. 

Desrochers says this helps to keep it out of Steinbach’s landfill which is where Ste. Anne garbage is delivered. He points out that mulching is more friendly for the environment as it eliminates the use of fuel to drive around town and pick up the nutrient-rich yard waste. It also saves residents time, not having to bag their grass clippings, and it saves money by not purchasing the paper bags specifically for yard waste.

A good mulching blade is designed to cut grass blades multiple times into small pieces, so they settle into the grass without clumps and decompose quickly. 

Why doesn’t the town have compost depots for grass clippings? Desrochers says they do not have the resources to operate a composting program, noting that compost depots would need to be supervised to avoid having garbage dumped into the bins. It would also require a truck and driver to deliver and empty the bin for the day. 

His hope is that people will recognize the value of grass clippings and use them to feed their lawns.