From fallen leaves to rich soil: Local business transforms yard waste

COLONIE, N.Y. (WRGB) — Every fall, millions of leaves blanket our yards. We rake them up and take it to the curb. but for one local business, these leaves are more than just yard waste.

Instead of sending them to landfills, some get brought to Green Renewable’s facility in Colonie, where unwanted fallen leaves get turned into rich soil— reducing waste while helping the environment.

“Today you can’t put green waste in landfills because it’ll break down the garbage and cause deterioration to landfill cells so we’re an alternative place to bring this material,” said Sean Gallivan, owner and CEO of Green Renewable, Inc, and SM Gallivan.

CBS 6’s BRIANA SUPARDI: “Where do you guys get your leaves?”

SEAN GALLIVAN: “The towns, municipalities, landscapers, anywhere they’re trying to get rid of green waste.”

Once the yard waste arrives at the facility, it first gets grinded up. It then gets placed into piles and left to decompose.

“We age that material for 90 days,” said Gallivan. “There’s a few steps we take where we flip that material, get oxygen to that material so the process starts.”

The shredded leaves are carefully monitored S they break down over time.

Gallivan says this method creates nutrient-rich soil.

“At that point, it starts as a base product. We have a base product to start with and we use a certain percentage of that in a lot of different mixes,” said Gallivan.

He says that he creates three different soil blends. Once the mixes are finalized, they get processed and packaged right at the same facility in Colonie before they are shipped to be sold at national markets.

“They do go into a department store atmosphere or nursery where they provide bagged material, a lot of time we’re making these materials too, putting them into our large dump trucks and providing them as bulk,” said Gallivan.