About
Residents and contractors may drop off brush, yard trim, grass, leaves, barn cleanings and wood chips at the wood waste drop-off area at Alpha Ridge Landfill. This is a plastic free area. Please take your plastic bags and tarps with you. Material is processed into compost, mulch and topsoil.
Get your yard in tip-top shape!
We sell our products, including our HoCoGro Compost, by the cubic yard throughout the year. We even have a list of contractors who will deliver the product directly to your door.
Compost
Sales by credit card ONLY are available in the Wood Waste Area.
HoCoGro STA Certified Compost is a soil amendment registered with the Maryland Department of Agriculture. It is regularly laboratory tested. Here are the latest lab results. Mixed into soil, compost adds nutrients, organic content and makes the soil more workable and retain moisture. These are all qualities that chemical fertilizers normally can't do.
Compost ($24*/cubic yard)
*All prices include sales tax. Prices increased January 1, 2022.
Mulch
Sales by credit card ONLY are available in the Wood Waste Area.
HoCoGro mulch is a naturally colored, double-ground mulch is excellent for top dressing your garden. Unlike some dyed mulches, this product will not steal nitrogen from your beds. We recently changed our grinding process to make a more uniform-sized mulch.
Mulch ($21*/cubic yard)
*All prices include sales tax. Prices increased February 1, 2016.
Blended Topsoil
Sales by credit card ONLY are available in the Wood Waste Area.
Our topsoil is a mix of soil and HoCoGro Compost. The compost addition makes it workable and able to retain moisture. Topsoil by definition is the top four inches of soil which includes the dark first inch and the often clay-like, pale remaining three inches. By blending compost into the topsoil, the organic matter content in the soil is raised to 5%-9%, and billions of soil enhancing microbes are added.
Topsoil Blend ($28*/cubic yard)
*All prices include sales tax. Prices increased January 1, 2022.
Some contractors will deliver HoCoGro Compost, Mulch or Topsoil to residents’ homes. Prices vary by vendor. Please remember that the cost listed does not include the cost of the product.
We sell our products by the cubic yard; they are loose and not bagged. A cubic yard is equivalent to about 13 large bags of mulch which typically each contain 2 cubic feet. A cubic yard of mulch, spread 2 inches thick will cover a 10'x15' area. There are many free online calculators that may be able to help you estimate your needs.
Measurements:
- A truck with a 4 foot bed can hold 1/2 cubic yard
- A truck with a 6 foot bed can hold 1 cubic yard
- A truck with an 8 foot bed can hold 2 cubic yards
- 1 cubic yard is roughly 173 gallons
- A 1/2 cubic yard is 17 five-gallon buckets
- Paper lawn bags are 30 gallons...1/4 cubic yard would be 1.5 bags filled full (45 gallons)
Treated wood/lumber and railroad ties are considered Construction & Demolition Debris and are not recyclable. These should not be mixed with regular yard trim and brush because they will contaminate the recycled products. Residents disposing of construction, demolition and home improvement material will be directed to weigh in at the scalehouse and will be charged $80/ton ($4 per 100 pounds) of waste.
Effective April 1, 2020
Alpha Ridge Landfill will be charging a $80/ton tip fee for wood pallets. Pallets will no longer be accepted in the Wood Waste area. Loads will be directed to the Waste Transfer Station for disposal. Please see our list of companies below that accept pallets for recycling and reuse.
- King Pallet
- Edrich Lumber, Inc.
- Frank's Pallets Service
- Peter's Pallets
- Valleywood Industries - (410) 488-5500
Mulch is not regulated in Maryland. Aged hardwood mulch like HoCoGro mulch available at Alpha Ridge Landfill is the best for most uses.
Quality mulch will have two key properties: time and some leafy material mixed in. Mulch is made by recycling fresh and dried wood. Mulch made from fresh cut material has leaves and sap in the wood, which compost during the aging process, stabilizing the material. The composting process makes the mulch a medium to dark brown.
Cheap mulches are usually made of wood from unknown sources and are dyed to make them look dark, but may not have been aged. Raw or dried wood that is not composted often steals nitrogen from the soil as the natural microbes try to break down the wood. Also, dyes can sometimes have volatile organic chemicals or metals that don’t occur in undyed hardwood mulch.
Paying a little more at the hardware store, or buying the locally-made HoCoGro mulch at the Alpha Ridge Landfill are better alternatives for your garden and lawn.