SHAFTER, Calif. (KERO) — The Shafter Wasco compost facility is fully operational, turning green bin material into compost that Kern County residents can pick up for free.
The project, years in the making, allows the county to produce compost required under state law in-house rather than contracting it out at a cost of millions of dollars a year. The facility processes material the county already collects, including branches from agricultural fields, grass, brush, and leaves from residential gardens.
Kern County Public Works Manager Dave Lee said the goal is to make the program accessible to all Kern County residents.
"A really lofty goal that we have as a county is to make sure that anybody that puts material in a green bin can, in turn, come and get complimentary compost if you're a resident of Kern County," Lee said.
Lee described the broader environmental benefit of the operation.
"You have material that comes in that typically has been landfilled for a number of years, and now we are taking branches material from the agricultural fields. We are taking grass and brush and leaves from the homeowner's gardens, and we're literally making something else that we can reincorporate back into the soil," Lee said.
The facility can produce about 40,000 tons of compost annually more than can be distributed to residents alone so the county is also making it available to commercial users, including landscapers, gardeners, and farmers.
Lee encouraged anyone interested to visit the county's website for details.
"If anybody's interested in compost, we encourage you to go to kernpublicwork.com/compost. Learn about you as a resident, what you have available to you, and then, if you're a commercial entity, a landscaper, gardener, farmer, if you're interested in material, there's also some details on how you can pick up and what the cost of the material is going to be," Lee said.
Residents can pick up free 25- to 30-pound bags of compost at the Shafter Wasco landfill. Lee said residents should check in with the gate agent upon arrival for directions to the bagged compost and can take as many bags as they need.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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