But the city of Durham has been doing it since December -- without telling you.

About 17,000 Durham residents pay $60 a year to have their yard waste collected from separate containers by separate trucks, presumably to be hauled off to a separate place.

Yet the city has been dumping all its refuse at its garbage transfer station off East Club Boulevard since Dec. 18.

Both yard and municipal waste then have been hauled to a landfill in Lawrenceville, Va.

The mixing of yard waste and garbage was forced by a two-week fire last year at city's yard waste facility that caused the site to close. The yard waste site, located behind the transfer station, had been operating for more than two years without a state permit.

Putting the fire out and cleaning up afterward cost the city $376,000. Removing all the composted material that remained, as directed by the state after the site was deemed unfit, is costing another $300,000. Until the yard waste dump is emptied -- sometime in August, the city hopes -- the mixing of yard waste and trash will continue.

"That's a very temporary arrangement, and we're not interested in continuing that arrangement," said Donald Long, director of the Solid Waste Management Department.

"We're real interested in being environmentally safe and friendly. We actually didn't have any other choice."

Adding yard waste to the regular shipment takes up scarce landfill space, Long said. In fact, North Carolina doesn't allow most landfills to accept yard waste. Virginia does.

People such as Frank Hyman, a garden designer and former City Council member, pay for yard waste collection with the understanding that the city is reusing it.

"That's my expectation, and I think that's the expectation of most people," he said.

"A lot of people may be angry when they hear the city is shipping the yard waste to the landfill."

From that perspective, Long conceded that the city should have put out a notice in December letting customers know about the mixing.

"It was an error of omission," he said. "It wasn't like we were trying to conceal anything. It was pretty much common knowledge we didn't have a permit and couldn't continue doing what we had been doing."

But the city will continue to collect the $60 annual fee, Long said.

"The fee is for us to pick it up," he said. "The fee is not contingent on what we do with it."

The state Department of Environment and Natural Resources has given Durham until August 2008 to clear the yard waste facility. The city hopes to finish a year ahead of schedule.

At that point, the city will reapply for a state permit. The state has said the city will have to build a small wastewater treatment plant if it wants to start composting again, something Durham officials don't think they can afford.

Coleen Sullins, deputy director of the state Division of Water Quality, said runoff from compost piles can cause major problems in surrounding waterways, including fish kills.

What leaches out from such a site, she said, "is really a high-strength waste."

So the plan now is to have the new yard waste facility just shred and package vegetative debris for resale or giveaway. In other words, Durham's out of the composting business for the time being.

Sullins said her division wants cities to compost, but she said that can't come at the expense of safe water. She said state officials would be willing to work closely with the city to find a good solution.

"If we can find a way for them to function without the need for a wastewater treatment facility, we would want for them to be able to do that," Sullins said.

Long discouraged people from including yard waste with their regular garbage or vice versa. He said people might get used to it, and the city would have to start a re-education program once it started separating refuse again.

"We'd like them to keep doing the same thing they've always done," he said.