Rediscovering the added value of recycled organics
Editorial from the August, 2001 edition of BioCycle Journal
10/9/2001

Original editorial by Jerome Goldstein. Visit BioCycle Journal online at www.biocycle.net.
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Whether on the golf course, the farm, the college campus, industrial processing line, urban trash collection route, or energy research facility, organics recycling is very much prevalent.

Golf plays an important role in the Atlanta region, so the biosolids compost applied to greens and fairways on local courses clearly has supplied an added value - improving water holding capacity, reducing thatch buildup, and generally making the sport more enjoyable for players.

The growing infrastructure for poultry litter composting is typified by developments at Sargent Nutrients where Jerald Sargent started his layer operation 30 years ago. Today he has a full-scale composting operation and provides advice on site design, management and marketing, reported by Britt Faucette of the University of Georgia.

At Purdue University, the Boilermakers shifted gears and moved right into a topsoil manufacturing mode to restore a large sand and gravel quarry next to its main campus in West Lafayette, Indiana. Windrow and static pile composting methods produce about 15,000 tons of finished compost annually from feedstocks that include pharmaceutical biosolids, leaves, straw, ground tree limbs and coal ash.

'The ability to manufacture topsoil has eliminated the need to strip topsoil and has allowed Purdue to use residuals that would otherwise be disposed of in landfills or land applied,' sums up Judy Tishmack of the University's Grounds Department.

About 95 percent of the waste streams at the Beardstown, Illinois meat processing plant operated by a Cargill subsidiary are organic materials that are easily composted. The totals include 2,500 to 3,000 tons/year of cardboard and processing plant residuals that were being landfilled.

'After evaluating a number of alternatives, composting was chosen as the best strategy for waste reduction/management,' writes Jim Roth. The result - a sustainable win-win situation. Disposal costs of up to $60/ton have been reduced.

In Seattle - where 'officials are asking what additional steps they can take to reduce residential waste' - a pilot project tests citizens' participation in a biweekly collection of food residuals and yard trimmings. According to Jennifer Bagby and Tanya Tarnecki, 'the city has a 60 percent residential recycling goal. The biggest motivator for expanded organics recovery is to essentially divert about 30 percent of the disposal stream. In addition, the city's variable rate program for garbage collection would provide a strong incentive for residents to produce smaller amounts of waste for curbside collection.'

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