How to Reduce Wood & Yard Waste

Recycle, Reuse and Reduce Wood and Yard Waste

• 1

  Use wood scraps for building projects, such as bird feeders or toys, or as garden stakes for supporting tomato plants, ivies and tall shrubs. Make rustic furniture from wood scraps or strap tall branches together to form a gazebo for your rambling rose bushes and trailing clematis vines. Form a tepee with branches or long twigs and throw a tarp over it to create a cool area for your kids to play.

• 2

  Chop up dry, seasoned wood scraps from apple, oak, mesquite or maple trees, then add them to your outdoor smoker -- and enjoy the mild smoky flavor that these woods impart to meat. Add wood chips on top of your charcoal barbecue to give a smoky aroma to cooking. Put yard waste, such as tree branches, bark or leaves, through a wood chipper and then spread the chips on your lawn to suppress weeds, or as a mulch around the plants in your garden.

• 3

  Reduce wood and yard waste by composting leaves, grass, weeds and kitchen scraps in your backyard composter. Also add dead flowers, rotten fruit and vegetables from your garden to the composter, then use the compost on plants. Composting is a practical, efficient and effective way of getting rid of unwanted yard waste with the added benefit of no more expense for bagging waste. Provide a richer, more productive soil for your gardens and lawn through composting.