A Falls Township landscape company is looking to dispose of yard waste from its crews in a new way.
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Michael DiNardo, president of Shades of Green Inc., told the Falls Township Board of Supervisors Monday evening of his plan is to purchase equipment from Florida-based AirBurners. The system will use a “slow, controlled burn” to reduce yard waste.
Yard waste from Shades of Green’s operations would be brought to a site at 80 MY Lane and placed in an AirBurner system.
“In my business, we generate a lot of green waste. It’s an exuberant problem,” DiNardo said. “This green waste is not going away. It’s very expensive and creates a lot of pollution to create mulch.”
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While burning the yard waste may initially seem bad for the environment, DiNardo showed that the company’s system burns in a manner where there is little smoke and an air curtain will be used to control pollution.
The AirBurners’ FireBox system will reduce the yard waste to about 10 percent of their previous size and leave behind a carbon ash, which is called biochar. The leftover ash can be used to enhance soil.
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AirBurners noted on their website the system has been tested by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Department of Energy, and military.
Mike Schmidt, an AirBurners sales director, said the company’s system has been deployed about 100 times in California has been used in other parts of the country by governments and private industry. He added the system has been called the “best available control technology” for disaster cleanup by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
DiNardo told the supervisors the AirBurners’ system can’t be used at Shades of Green’s facility on South Pennsylvania Avenue due to limited room, which is why he is considering the MY Lane site.
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“There’s essentially no neighbors, no residential,” DiNardo said of the proposed site.
DiNardo said the goal is to keep the operation small. In the future, some contractors and residential customers might be allowed to drop off waste.
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“We’re looking at small scale,” DiNardo said.
Two Central Bucks County companies use AirBurner technology at their businesses and have positive review of it, DiNardo said.
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Supervisors Chairperson Jeff Dence said the system was “interesting” and used “impressive” technology. He pondered that there might be more questions from public about environmental concerns.
Dence said the system seems to make sense for the proposed location.
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The landscape company will have to submit the plan through the land development process and win approval from the supervisors.
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