Houston-based Waste Management is developing an organic waste processing facility in Okeechobee, Fla., that is set to begin operating in spring 2011. The facility will process food waste, yard waste and clean wood waste to create compost.

The eight-acre facility, which will be Waste Management’s first composting facility in Florida, will be located next to the firm’s Okeechobee Landfill.

Approximately one-third of the municipal solid waste generated in North America consists of organic waste, which consists of food waste, yard waste and wood waste, according to Waste Management. Roughly 65 percent of the yard waste and 2.5 percent of the food waste generated in the United States are diverted from landfills, Waste Management says.