FACT: Did you know those garbage bags full of grass and leaves you have laying around can self combust?

Grass clippings and yard waste produce heat. This happens as a result of microscopic bacteria and fungi feeding on moist grass clippings. Freshly cut grass spread over a lawn starts to rot, but you can’t feel the heat that it generates until you rake the grass into a pile. The bigger the pile, the more heat is trapped and the hotter the pile temperature. Therefore, when grass clippings are bagged, you have a large amount of clippings in a bag that is generating heat; and if that bag is broke open inside a trash truck or a compost bin, the gases produced by the grass clippings are exposed to oxygen, causing the material to ignite and catch fire (spontaneously combust). This can also happen with the bags in your yard. The moisture inside the bag reacts to the heat from the sun. One small hole allowing oxygen to enter can cause the “harmless” bags around your yard to be dangerous. These bags should be taken to and emptied at Kindersley’s designated composting area at the old landfill on Highway 21.