Back to Nature

By T. Peter Kristian

Hilton Head Plantation in Hilton Head, S.C., is graced with towering loblolly pines, century-old live oak trees and a thick forest understory. The backdrop that this natural beauty provides is breathtaking.

One of the consequences of living in such an environment is storm debris. When the wind blows, leaves, pine needles and tree branches all come down and cover streets, lawns and roofs. It’s a challenge for the Hilton Head Plantation Property Owners Association and residents to keep up with a seemingly never-ending supply of landscape debris. Hauling all this material away was costly. Dumping it in the local landfill also was expensive and took up valuable space unnecessarily. Burning the material was not safe and also placed pollutants into the environment.

The association board approved a two‑fold solution: provide residents with a central location to dump their yard waste and purchase a tub-grinder—a machine that processes the material into useable mulch.

All material is processed by association employees and turned into mulch, which is used throughout the association to dress flowerbeds, trees and many of the association’s nature trails.

The mulch keeps water consumption down by helping to retain moisture in the ground, and the association makes it available to association members at no charge. This service recycles more than 50 tons of landscape debris annually that would otherwise be dumped into the local landfill. The tub-grinder can handle a tree limb up to six inches in diameter.

Since the implementation of this initiative some 15 years ago, not one cubic yard of landscape debris has been dumped into the local landfill. This program has been a win-win solution for our property owners and the environment.

T. Peter Kristian, CMCA, LSM, PCAM, is general manager of Hilton Head Plantation Property Owners Association. He also is president of Community Associations Institute.