Effective Wednesday, Sept. 15, the City of Ann Arbor’s bulk compost will again be available for sale. Mechanically-loaded, cured and screened bulk municipal compost will be priced at $9 per cubic yard for up to 10 cubic yards per truck load; $7 per cubic yard for 10-24 cubic yards per truck load; and $5 per cubic yard for 25 or more cubic yards per truck load. Earlier this year, Ann Arbor’s cured compost was sold out, and interested customers have been waiting for the next batch to be fully decomposed, screened and ready for sale. Details are posted online at www.a2gov.org/compost.

Restrictions on large bulk compost sales will allow only 40 cubic yards of material per company, per day, to be sold and loaded. Additional sale cutoffs will be triggered, if needed, in order to reserve compost to sell to residents.

Ann Arbor’s Compost Center, at 4150 Platt Road (734-794-6380), is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is reached via a one-mile access road in the Wheeler Service Center. Customers place orders and make payments at the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) scale house. An onsite front-load operator is then contacted to load the compost into the buyer’s truck. Standard car trunks or station wagons are not acceptable vehicles for collecting materials from the Compost Center. All vehicles must be tarped before leaving the site, according to state law.

Ann Arbor’s compost is certified by the U.S. Composting Council, which assesses the city’s finished compost to be consistently high in nutrient value, devoid of weed seeds and tested for germination. Compost test results data is posted on the Web at www.a2gov.org/compost.

Cured and screened compost is especially useful as a soil amendment applied to gardens soils. Compost may also be spread as a top-dressing for lawns, used as slow-release nutrient mulch, or to provide a finished appearance around foundation plantings.

Municipal compost in bushel and cubic yard quantities may also be purchased from Recycle Ann Arbor’s Drop-Off Station at 2950 E. Ellsworth (734- 971-7400). Please check for availability and prices. The Drop-Off Station is open Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Wednesdays through Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For 24-hour information on the city’s compost operations and compost cart sales, please call 734-99-GREEN or view the city’s Web site at www.a2gov.org/compost.

Your World provides local environmental information to our community. Contributing partners include: Washtenaw County’s Environmental Health Division; the nonprofit Recycle Ann Arbor; the City of Ann Arbor’s Public Services Area, Natural Area Preservation, Systems Planning programs for Energy, Environmental Coordination, Solid Waste, Transportation, and Water Resources.