Vol. XVI No. 2
March / April 2022
Serving Soil, Mulch, Compost & Wood Pellet Producers www.SoilandMulchProducerNews.com
NEWS
County Expanding Compost Efforts to Meet California’s New Recycling Law
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new $8 million composting facility — designed to speed up the composting process by as much as 50 percent or more from its two existing sites — is being planned by Orange County Waste & Recycling to help meet California’s mandate to divert organic waste from landfills in order to reduce greenhouse gases. When completed, expected sometime By P.J. Heller in 2023, the new 15-acre Valencia Greenery compost facility at the Olinda Alpha Landfill in Brea will feature a covered aerated static Bee Canyon Greenery, located at the Frank R. Bowerman Landfill in Irvine, is the flagship composting pile (CASP) system to more quickly convert program created by Orange County Waste & Recycling. green waste and food waste into compost while requiring less water and space. “Once Valencia Greenery is in operation, “With the CASP system, it utilizes a cover if spargers are used for either negative or positive the goal is to apply the (CASP) technology at Bee system with a force aeration blower. This avoids aeration,” he added. “The compost liquids would Canyon Greenery and Capistrano Greenery,” the need to turn the windrows and reduces also need to be collected if there is negative Koutroulis said. “This will allow the facilities the amount of water used,” explained Tom aeration. Ultimately, the facility operator to potentially process more material within the Koutroulis, director of Orange County Waste needs to perform the analysis to determine the same footprint.” & Recycling. “At the same time, the residence investment costs to utilize technologies other The CASP system could also be used by time to convert the feedstock can be reduced than open windrow composting.” other jurisdictions or companies to convert from 120-180 days to 45-90 days depending on The three landfills run by Orange County traditional compost sites, he added. the feedstock material. The cover system helps Waste & Recycling serve some 3.3 million “A CASP requires more capital and reduce emissions and odors particularly when it people in Southern California living in 34 cities infrastructure needs,” he noted. “CASP utilizes comes to incorporating manure and food waste and the unincorporated areas. Green waste a force aeration system so electricity into the feedstock.” currently comes from only the unincorporated wo u l d b e n e e d e d e i t h e r by Both the 30-acre Bee Canyon areas; the cities and their haulers decide where direct power or through Greenery compost site at green waste is taken, such as to private compost generators. Since blowers the Frank R. Bowerman manufacturers inside or outside the county. are involved and the landfill in Irvine and the David Tieu, deputy director at Orange CASP system utilizes 18-acre Capistrano County Waste and Recycling, said the compost a tarping system for Greenery compost facilities were designed to serve the entire emission control, f a c i l i t y at t h e county and contract negotiations with the cities a permit may be Prima Deshecha would be occurring again later this year. Those required by the landfill in San long‑term agreements could include having the local air quality Juan Capistrano cities bring their green waste and food waste to district. This both utilize the county compost facilities. lengthens the traditional “For the long term, what do they want to timeframe to get open windrow do with their green waste,” Tieu asked. “We built a CASP system technology. Bee these facilities (with that in mind) . . . If they in operation Canyon opened want to bring it to us, we can accommodate them. compared to using in October 2020; If they decide not to, that’s their prerogative.” te t h e o p e n w i n d row Capistrano opened Bee Canyon Greenery and Capistrano t st n he te technology. the following year. Both n Greenery each receive about 150 to 200 tons l ps o o pe re c “Also, there may need composting sites only take u per week of feedstock material, although they t s rati o n s id en tify m o i to be some grading work needed Continued on page 3 in green waste.