Soil & Mulch Producer News Mar/Apr 2013

Vol. VII No. 2

March / April 2013

Serving Soil, Mulch, Compost, & Biofuel Professionals www.SoilandMulchProducerNews.com

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Employees at Phillips’ Soil Products in Canby, Ore using their bagging system to bag a soil product for one of their customers.

Contract-Bagging …

A Great Way to Increase Your Product Offering and Profits!

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By P.J. Heller

f you are a soil, mulch or compost producer who focuses primarily on bulk material sales, you might be surprised to know that you could increase your profits significantly if you were also able to produce a line of bagged products.

That’s the message that some industry experts extol about the benefits of using a contract-bagging service provider to help them produce their own bagged products.

“I always say that volume is in bulk and profit is in bags,” says Ian Traquair, national sales manager for ECCO Chips, part of ECCO Recycling and Energy Corp., of Calgary, Canada.

“I’m getting three times more profit off my bags than I am from bulk.”

Although the purchase price of a bagging system is beyond what some bulk material producers/suppliers can afford, contract-bagging is one way for these business owners to overcome this obstacle and increase their sales. In this scenario, a company that owns its own bagging line, also uses its equipment to provide bagging services to other companies that do not own a bagging system.

Such an arrangement is a win-win opportunity for both companies, because the company without a bagging system is now able to increase its sales potential by offering a bagged product, and the

bagging contractor can optimize the use of its bagging system(s) while also generating new revenue for the company. This also creates a greater demand for bagging (equipment) systems, as bagging contractors are encouraged to add on new bagging lines to meet the increased demand for contract-bagging.

“By having me bag the product for them, they can increase their market, because now they have both bulk and bag products,” notes Mark Geringer, president of Marks Premium Products in Kirkwood, Mo. “If you have your main potting soil plant in the center of the country and you want to take your product national or somewhat more regional, you’re going to look to people like me to help you out,” adds Bill Phillips, president and owner of Phillips’ Soil Products in Canby, Ore. Phillips’ company is among those that can produce and bag custom potting soils for customers.

His company is ideally situated for those who want to get their products into the Pacific Northwest.

“If you were a company that made potting soil in Phoenix or Los Angeles and you wanted to expand your market up to the Pacific Northwest, it would save you [the cost] of having to open up Continued on page 3

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Contract-Bagging …

Continued from page 1

PUBLICATION STAFF Publisher / Editor Rick Downing Contributing Editors / Writers P.J. Heller Todd Williams Production & Layout Barb Fontanelle Christine Pavelka Advertising Sales Rick Downing Subscription / Circulation Donna Downing Editorial, Circulation & Advertising Office 6075 Hopkins Road Mentor, OH 44060 Ph: 440-257-6453 Fax: 440-257-6459 Email: downassoc2@oh.rr.com www.SoilandMulchProducerNews.com

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and staff your own plant [by coming to us],” he says. “You just pretty much would pay for what you need. We usually do it on a per bag basis for people, which allows them to have the mix blended and packaged at a substantially reduced cost versus opening up their own plant and going that route.”

The do-it-yourself option of installing, staffing and maintaining a bagging line can be cost-prohibitive for many companies.

“We can do it much cheaper for them than they could on their own,” says Traquair, who has been offering contract bagging services to others since 2008. “They can use their time better to promote their own business.”

“An automated bagging line is half a million dollars-plus, and that’s without a building or electrical,” notes Steve Jarahian, director of quality control for the lawn and garden division of Old Castle in Atlanta, Ga. “It‘s no different whether you‘re in the bakery business, the bread business or the potting soil business, you can certainly do it yourself but you’d better have the economy of scale.”

Even if bulk producers are willing to make that investment, they are still faced with the high cost of shipping their bagged products, especially if they want to market them in other regions. By arranging for contract bagging in different areas, those shipping costs are minimized.

“Basically we’re in the freight business,” Jarahian says. “The further out you go from your home base, freight becomes a factor. When you’re talking products that retail for less than $3 a bag and you’re talking about diesel at $4 a gallon, it only makes sense if you’re shipping radius is 100 to 150 miles. That’s sort of a sweet spot. The further out you go on mileage it starts to get quite costly.”

At Nature’s Way Resources in Conroe, Texas, which produces high-quality compost, mulch and soil blends, customers as far as 200 miles away are willing to foot the bill for transportation of those products. The company has its own bagging line and sells both bagged and bulk products, retail and wholesale.

“We have botanical garden centers that are 200 miles away that buy from me because they want the quality,” says company founder John Ferguson. “They pay more for the transportation than they do for the product.”

The bagging line was installed in 2002 in response to customer requests for bagged products and Ferguson’s inability to find anyone local who offered that service. He says it would have been “far more expensive” for him to contract out the bagging.

“In my case, the cost of shipping to a bagger and then shipping the palletized material back would have eaten up all the profit,” he explains. “I also had the issue of small quantities of bags and a dozen or so different products.”

Ferguson did a contract bagging job for a client last summer and has since decided to hold off on offering contract bagging services for the foreseeable future.

Traquair, meantime, says that the biggest savings a company will realize in contracting out its bagging is in shipping costs. While ECCO Chips has its own bagging system and offers that service to others, it still contracts with another company in British Columbia to produce and bag its mulch.

“It’s cheaper for him to co-bag it than it is for me to ship it [ECCO Chips mulch] across the mountains,” Traquair says. “I send him all my bags and he fills them and I organize the logistics of getting them to my customers in British Columbia.

“For soil and mulch, if you have to send it more than 500 to 600 miles, you’re better to have it co-bagged somewhere within that range,” he adds.

Many of those who offer bagging services also can mix and blend their own products to meet a customer’s specific formula.

“What they’ll do is come to us with the recipe they want us to blend which will include percentages of peat and bark, pumice and sand, perlite, whatever they choose they want in a mix,” Phillips says. “They’ll also specify what fertilizers they want in a mix . . . We basically contract with them. We blend the material, we package it and we load it on trucks for them.

“They’re only going to pay for what they use at our plant,” he adds. “When we’re not producing bags for them, we’re not charging them anything. It seems like a fair and reasonable way of doing things.”

At Old Castle Lawn and Garden, “We’ll take your bag and we’ll fill it,” Jarahian says. “We’re strictly a manufacturing production facility that fills your product in your specific formulation and then you market it.”

Amerigrow is also among the companies that offer specialty mixes for their bagging clients.

A bagging line was installed around 2000 for its mulch products — it sells about 2.25 million bags a year — and the company offers contract bagging for soil, mulch and compost.

“We do the blending. We have a state-of-theart soil line,” says Dave Tomlinson, president of the Delray Beach, Fla., company. “We’re able to pretty much do any blends that anyone would require.”

The company spent three years working with a Colorado client developing and perfecting one particular specialty mix.

“It’s a soil mix for medical marijuana,” Tomlinson says. “We helped co-develop the mix.

We gave them an idea of what they should be using as a base. We would send them samples and they would test grow some plants . . . that’s why the process took so long. They tried some in this batch, some in that batch. We finally got it dialed in.

“It’s basically ‘medical marijuana for dummies,’” Tomlinson says with a laugh. “You basically take the mix, put a plant in it and you don’t have to touch it again. All the nutrients, everything, are already in there.”

The Colorado company provides the bags to Continued on page 6

March / April 2013 Soil & Mulch Producer News

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Food Waste Recycling Continues to Grow Throghout the U.S.

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By Todd Williams

ith so much attention in the country drawn to recycling metal, paper, glass and plastic, the easiest product to recycle has historically taken a back seat in the rush to reclaim materials. That product is food.

But with the shrinking amount of landfill space and rising tipping or disposal fees, the composting of food scraps has become a rapidly growing industry.

Although food waste has been used to create organically rich soil for thousands of years, it’s only been during the last decade or so that commercial food waste collection and composting has become both popular and economically feasible.

The connection between shrinking landfill space and the gaining popularity for food waste recycling is evident. For instance, the US EPA notes that more food waste reaches landfills than any single material in municipal solid waste.

In 2010 alone, more than 34 million tons of food waste was generated, with only three percent diverted from landfills and incinerators for composting, according to EPA figures.

Jeff Beatty, vice president for sales at George-based Viridiun, says that his firm strives to follow the US EPA’s Food Recovery Hierarchy. Viridiun is a food waste collector, hauler and composter serving 15 states.

According to the EPA, the hierarchy ranks the six ways of diverting food from landfalls, from most preferred to least preferred. They are source reduction/ prevention, feeding people, feeding animals, industrial uses, and composting and anaerobic digestion.

Beatty explains the hierarchy in more detail. He notes that reducing the amount of food waste by purchasing only foods that will be used is the easiest way to reduce scraps. Sending wholesome, edible food to people via food banks feeds hungry people and provides a tax benefit to the source. Feeding safe, fresh food scraps to animals like pigs reduces landfill usage. Industrial uses of food waste include conversion of grease, fats and oils into products or biofuel. Composting turns food into a valuable soil additive for farmers. And, he explains anaerobic digestion turns waste into a soil amendment, and into methane gas, a renewable energy source.

Viridiun, says Beatty, produces animal feed and compost products from the four million pounds of food waste it collects from grocery stores including Wal-Mart, restaurants and other sources from the states it serves. The raw materials for its products are processed in five facilities located in Georgia, Florida, Alabama and South Carolina.

“The food waste we process that’s used in animal feed is mainly sold in the Southeast. We create about 120 tons per week,” Beatty says.

In Ohio, Viridiun collects and hauls food waste for soil composting in a partnership with Ohio Mulch Supply, Inc. According to Kristin Chek, general counsel for Ohio Mulch Supply, Ohio is one of the top five states in the US in terms of food waste recovery and actively teams with private firms to expand these efforts.

She says since 2007, the state through the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and later the Ohio EPA, has been focused on food recovery when it launched the successful Ohio Food Scraps Recovery Initiative and has backed up its efforts with 50-50 grants for training and to help purchase composting equipment such as shredders and screens. Some of the grant dollars have gone to set up food scrap recovery programs 4

Soil & Mulch Producer News March / April 2013

in the state prisons as well, she explains.

Chek explains that Ohio Mulch, which opened in 1984, had been buying nutrient-rich soil in Michigan, and shipping it to Ohio where it was prepared for resale.

“We had been looking at what was happening in California where food scraps were being used in vineyards to produce nutrient-rich soil. As hauling costs increased, composting food from within Ohio seemed like a good idea,” she recounts.

A processing site was selected and a facility was constructed and in September 2011 Ohio Mulch began accepting food waste for composting.

Within six months, Chek says, the first batch of compost was ready to sell.

The process for composting is relatively simple, Chek says. First, the food waste is hauled to the composting facility and weighed. Then it is shredded and screened multiple times to assure a clean final product. It is then stored for about six months until it is ready for either bagging or bulk delivery. Before it is sold in the company’s 24 retail outlets, the compost is tested for pathogens including salmonella and fecal coliform, as well as metals.

According to Chek, in 2012 Ohio Mulch collected more than 5,000 tons of food scraps. And, she notes, the company is on track this year to collect three and a half times the amount of waste it received last year.

Chek explains that when the composting facility was built, Ohio Mulch was given a license from the Ohio EPA to accept 100 tons of food per day.

Presently, the company takes in 10 to 15 tons per day, mainly from grocery stores and some chain restaurants.

Tonya Woodruff, director of the Ohio Grocer’s Foundation, an industry trade group with 450 members, says OGF has been actively pursuing food waste recovery since 2007 when it formed a task force to develop a plan for grocery store food recovery. The Ohio Food Scrap Recovery Network was formed to bring grocers together to work on scrap recovery issues such as training store personnel to separate and store scraps for pick-up.

“The state gave us a grant to help design an economic model for food scrap recovery. This was accomplished over a series of meeting and presentations with our members,” she notes.

Presently, Woodruff says, the OGF’s leading food waste recovery member is Krogers, with over 120 stores involved in the program. Other major grocery players starting their own programs include Giant Eagle and Heinens.

One of the leading processors of food scraps is Waste Management, Inc., also one of the largest waste collection and processing companies in the world.

According to Carrie Miller, WM’s manager of its food waste center in Orlando, Florida, her facility services more than 110 major grocery stores in Florida including Publix and Whole Foods, as well as Universal Studios and a number of hotels and resorts in the Sunshine State.

Miller says her firm’s collection and processing program was designed to be simple and easy to follow for the sources.

“We provide 64-gallon toters for every collection point.

Then we train the staff in the collection and separation of preconsumer waste from the grocery stores and post-consumer Continued on next page

Soil Continued from previous page

waste from the restaurants. We schedule from one to three pickups per week. Our collection trailers then go to the processing centers in Orlando and South Florida,” she explains.

Miller says the processing facilities produce nutrient rich compost that is presently sold as a bulk material. WM is now developing a system for bagging the compost for sale to individuals.

“It’s been easy for our customers to follow this program. We even track the amount of material collected each month for our customers,” she adds.

Although the entire food waste recovery is revenue neutral, Miller notes at this point food recovery is a matter of “good will” for participants.

“For instance,” she cites, “for hotels this doesn’t cost them any more money, yet they can attract more convention business by showing they are a ‘green’ resort.”

According to Miller and others in the industry, one of the main stumbling blocks to food waste recovery is the price of landfill tipping fees.

Basically, the less landfills charge per ton to dispose of waste, the less incentive there is for food recycling. Conversely when tipping fees increase, so does the volume of food waste recycling.

Landfill rates vary widely from state to state as well as within the state. For instance, Miller notes landfill fees are now $40 per ton in Orlando, but soar to $100 per ton in south Florida.

Since WM and other haulers charge a hauling fee and a disposal fee, there’s obviously more incentive to recycle food waste in an area with high tipping charges.

Viridiun’s Beatty explains there is a fine balancing act for the haulers to make a profit from food waste. He says that rising trucking costs combined with historically low disposal rates in the Southeast impact the profitability of food collection in that region. In areas with higher disposal rates, such as Ohio, more profit can be made. To further confuse business models, haulers have to deal with rates that vary not only by geography, but aldo by whether the landfill is municipally or privately owned, or publically owned and privately operated.

“The biggest challenge to us and others in the food scrap recovery business is the cost of the infrastructure. The overall cost has to be revenue neutral or better in order for us to turn a profit,” Beatty notes.

Ohio Mulch’s Chek is very positive about the future of food waste composting even though the process is cost neutral right now.

“It will become very profitable for us in the future,” she notes.

Ohio Mulch recently introduced a new product to grocery stores called “Green Envy.”

Chek says the .65 cubic foot bags of the compost

are selling well.

“This is a full circle product. We process food scraps, compost the stuff and bag it. Then we sell it back to the grocery stores. This is real sustainability,” she says.

On a larger issue, the EPA says that traditional trash disposal wastes resources that enrich soil, but also speeds up climate change due to the uncontrolled release of methane, a gas with 21 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. Additionally, 14 percent of the greenhouse gasses released in the US come from growing, manufacturing, transporting and disposing food.To this end some states, most notably Vermont, Connecticut and Massachusetts, are instituting bans on commercial food waste in landfills.

Beatty is enthusiastic about the future of food waste reclamation.

“The business has grown from essentially nothing to a nationwide presence. Our growth has been tremendous since we started in 2010. I believe one of the main drivers of growth in our industry has been the issue of sustainability,” Beatty adds.

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Contract-Bagging …

Continued from page 3

be filled, which are subsequently shipped to several states. Due to shipping costs, Tomlinson says licensing of the soil product may be arranged with another soil producer who can handle the bagging on the West coast.

“It’s just like any other mix to us,” Tomlinson says. “They supply the bags and we just bag it for them. It’s just like any other high-end mix that we would do.”

While many of the soil, mulch and compost companies that offer bagging services can fill customer bags with their own materials, in some cases a nearby customer may ship material to be bagged.

“We have one client that has a particular potting mix that they sell to different growers for their perennials. They sell it in bulk. But they have a number of customers who don’t want it in bulk, so they need to sell it in bags,” says Geringer of Marks Premium Products.

Marks Premium Products are distributed in Missouri and Illinois, roughly within 100 to 200 miles from St. Louis.

“People ship me their material but they’re fairly close, not 100 miles away. They ship it to me and I bag it for them,” Geringer says.

Lou Cavallo, production manager at Sweet Peet in Litchfield, Conn., is one mulch producer who needs little convincing about the benefits of contract bagging. The company, which sells both bulk and bagged product, has eight facilities in the U.S. “Our business model is not to have employees,” Cavallo says. “We actually subcontract everything out.”

That includes bagging of the mulch products in several locations including Virginia, Ohio and Florida, eliminating the capital investment in equipment, buildings and personnel and trimming shipping costs of the 1.5 cubic foot bags of mulch.

“We don’t have overhead when we don’t need it,” Cavallo says. “Once we’re done bagging and our season is over, we have no overhead to carry for the rest of the year.”

Soil, mulch and compost companies that offer contract bagging generally

say they offer the service because they have excess capacity on the bag line.

“Imagine us having that problem with eight different facilities,” Cavallo says. “It’s a lot of extra expense. At our volume, it wouldn’t be any cheaper if we had our own line. You have to look at the cost of doing business and keeping that facility up and running. For us to hit that [volume] in every facility would be really difficult.”

Utilizing contract baggers allows Sweet Peet to choose the most costeffective locations to move its products. Otherwise, Cavallo notes, “the cost of shipping is just outrageous.”

Sweet Peet, which has a nationwide presence through distribution companies, is currently negotiating for contract bagging services in Connecticut and is looking at expanding its operations into Texas and California.

Ferguson, Cavallo and others agree that contracting out for bagging could be an ideal first step for companies that want to offer bagged products.

“A lot would depend on their operations, type and variety of products,” Ferguson says. “It would vary from region to region. However, it would allow one to test the market before investing in a bagging system.”

“I think it’s an excellent first step,” Cavallo says. “I believe that if you don’t have the bagging volume, it’s pointless to own a piece of equipment. If you’re covering North America and want to be able to say I can ship everywhere from one location, you get absolutely destroyed on shipping.”

Cavallo recalls that when the company first started, it purchased a manual bagging system, which it later sold.

“We thought we could move it around to different facilities,” he says.

“When you look at the cost of doing it manually, we were able to save more than half by doing it through a contract bagger.”

Asked what he would tell soil, mulch and compost producers who were thinking about offering bagged products, Cavallo replied, “The biggest advice that I would give them is to definitely use a contract bagger.”

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Contract-Bagging … A Great Way to Increase Your Product Offering and Profits!

Continued from page 6 The following companies can provide more information on contract bagging services:

The following companies manufacture bagging & palletizing systems:

Amerigrow Delray Beach, F Phone: (561) 499-8148 Toll Free (800) 860-8238 Email: Dave@amerigrow.com

Oldcastle Retail, Inc. Atlanta, GA Phone: (770) 804-3363 Toll Free (800) 899-8455 Email: Steve.Jarahian@oldcastle.com

Amadas Industries Suffolk, VA Phone: (757) 539-0231 Email: tandrews@amadas.com See ad on pg 19

Rethceif Packaging Ossian, IN Phone: (260) 622-7200 Toll Free: (866) 298-1876 Email: greg@rethceif.com

ECCO Chips Calgary, AB Phone: (403) 720-3851 Toll Free: (866) 720-0444 Email: ian@eccorecycling.com

Phillips’ Soil Products Canby, OR Phone: (503) 266-4700 Email: customsoil@phillipssoil.com

Hamer LLC Plymouth, MN Phone: (763) 231-0100 Email: dan@hamerinc.com

Rotochopper, Inc. St. Martin, MN Phone: (320) 548-3586 Email: atbrick@rotochopper.com See ad on pg 17

Marks Premium Products LLC Kirkwood,Mo Phone: (314) 312-1306 Email: majicmark2002@yahoo.com

Premier Tech Chronos Rivière-du-Loup, PQ Phone: (418) 867-8883 Email: raye@premiertech.com See ad on pg 8

Photo(s) in this article are courtesy of Phillips’ Soil Products.

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Study Finds Nearly 50% of Retail Firewood Infested With Insects

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ccording to sciencedauly.com, a new study published in the Journal of Economic Entomology reports that live insects were found in 47% of firewood bundles purchased from retail stores, gas stations and grocery stores in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

Untreated firewood can harbor pathogens and destructive insects such as the emerald ash borer, the Asian longhorned beetle, bark beetles and others, and transport them to uninfested areas.

Furthermore, the risk of moving insects in untreated firewood is high, the authors found, because insects emerged up to 558 days from the purchase date of the wood.

There are currently no national regulations on the commercial firewood industry that require firewood to be treated before use or sale to reduce the possibility of live insects or pathogens on or in the wood. Several state and federal agencies are attempting to reduce the risk of introducing invasive native or exotic species by restricting the distance firewood can move from its origin and by enacting outreach programs to educate the public.

However, the authors conclude that heat-treating firewood before it is shipped so that insects or pathogens are killed would be prudent and would not restrict firewood commerce as much as bans on firewood movement across state borders.

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Waste Management of Illinois and Garick Announce Compost Marketing Agreement

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aste Management of Illinois, Inc. and Garick LLC recently announced they have reached a multi-year agreement under which Garick will market compost created at two Waste Management facilities for distribution in Illinois, Indiana and Southern Wisconsin.

The agreement covers Garick’s distribution of compost from Waste Management’s Willow Ranch site in Romeoville, Ill. and its Harbor View facility on Chicago’s Southeast Side.

Waste Management is the leading generator of compost from yard trimmings and food residuals in Illinois. Garick, a Cleveland-based company majority owned by Waste Management, is a manufacturer, marketer and distributor of organic natural resource products.

Garick will market the compost and compost blends to landscapers, soil blenders, garden centers, nurseries, turf grass professionals, and urban and rural farmers. It will be available in packaged and bulk quantities and sold under the Organic Valley® and Nature’s Helper® brand names.

“The Willow Ranch and Harbor View facilities produce high-quality compost that is a blend of clean yard trimmings and food residuals,” said Robert Schanz, Garick’s vice president of operations. “This compost, because of the good residual product from which it is made and the finishing process, yields compost that is high in organic matter and micronutrients and low in soluble salts.”

High-quality compost improves soil structure and porosity, increases moisture infiltration and permeability, supplies organic matter, aids in the proliferation of soil microbes, encourages vigorous root growth, improves cation exchange capacity, contains humus, and buffers pH, Schanz said.

“Waste Management has substantially expanded its capacity to manage yard wastes and 1235 organics, and we now operate the largest network of compost facilities in northern Illinois,” said Dale Hoekstra, director of operations in the Company’s Illinois-Missouri Valley Area. “Our agreement with Garick supports our goal is to extract as much value as we can from the materials we manage.

Our composting operations enhance this value by creating a high-quality product that now will be marketed to a broader range of end users in the landscape industry.”

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Info Request #160 10 Soil & Mulch Producer News March / April 2013

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Mulch Production Halted by New York State Supreme Court

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RUNSWICK, NY—The state Supreme Court upheld a local zoning restriction against a mulch producer in Brunswick, according to an article on TimesUnion.com.

Three parcels on a 74.4-acre site were at issue in January 2012 when the Brunswick Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) deemed that Oakwood Property Management’s mulch operations violated local codes. Neighbors of the facility had complained to the city about noise and odors. Although the company took steps to reduce noise, it had also expanded its operations.

The mulch producer employs 110 people at the site to manufacture landscape supplies, recycle wood waste and crush concrete and asphalt.

Rensselaer County had classified the site as an Empire Zone in order to provide economic incentives for continued industrial development.

The Gallivan family, which runs the facility, has maintained that the government knew about its expansion, but throughout the legal proceedings, county officials denied any knowledge. The ZBA noted that the company’s contentions about the conversations were not specific and did not have a timeline.

Ending the string of appeals, the State Supreme Court ruled that “The ZBA rationally and properly concluded that petitioner’s commercial mulching operation is not a permitted use on the 43-acre parcel lying within the ‘Schools and Cemeteries’ zone.”

The court reached a similar conclusion regarding the Brunswick ZBA’s determination that Oakwood’s use of the 26-acre parcel, stating that “the production, storage and distribution of mulch/topsoil are not permitted within the agricultural district in which that parcel lies.”

The original ZBA ruling states that Oakwood “must bear responsibility for its own actions as well.” The decision also states, “Surely, appellant’s principals knew or should have known the zoning of the parcels they purchased before they went forward.”

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Info Request #128 12 Soil & Mulch Producer News March / April 2013

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Info Request #127 March / April 2013 Soil & Mulch Producer News 13

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Strong Dollar and Forestry Market Boost Canada’s Economy

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TTAWA, CANADA—Inews880.com and NorthernOntarioBusiness. com report Canada’s forestry industry is turning around after a decade-long slump. In addition to responding to a strong dollar (97 cents) and healthy fourth quarter sales for 2012, the industry is undergoing major changes—from modernization to meeting the global demand for new types of products.

David Lindsay, president and CEO of the Ottawa-based Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) says member companies are positioning themselves to respond to what is being forecast as a global “super cycle.”

Across Canada, producers have been gearing up for the increased demand by appealing to diversity—in both labor and global markets.

Many companies have immediate needs for sawmill and paper machine operators, front line-supervisors, silviculture workers, technicians, skidder operators, log laborers, truck drivers, material handlers, millwrights, electricians, steam/power engineers and heavy equipment operators.

But for the industry to attract its goal of 60,000 workers by the year 2020, FPAC is using a variety of campaigns that take into account changing mill processes and sustainability practices that have been, or are being implemented.

The kinds and numbers of jobs that are part of this emerging transformation call for a diverse labor force – one that is trained in lab chemistry, computer technology and logistics. Brawn for traditionally physical work will still be needed, as well.

Even the face of the industry is morphing, shedding its past environmentally negative associations and replacing them with sustainability and forest rejuvenation. Appealing to immigrants, aboriginals, sustainability-minded youth and especially, women, for career and long-term jobs requires sometimes creative approaches. Companies are using social media, scholarships and contests, to name a few methods.

End products are changing, too. Customers in Asia want pulp for new applications, such as rayon fiber used to manufacture automobile bumpers, door panels and other components. And, India’s Birla Group has purchased closeddown pulp mills in Ontario and New Brunswick, installing pulp dissolving machinery to convert the wood fiber byproduct into rayon for clothing.

“Anything you can make out of the complex carbon molecules of oil and petroleum, you should, in theory, make out of the molecules of a tree,” says FPAC’s Lindsay, who notes that support from the federal Pulp and Paper Green Transformation Program and various provincial funding for mill upgrades have helped the industry get back on its feet.

Bandit Adds Three New Dealers

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Info Request #179 14 Soil & Mulch Producer News March / April 2013

id-Michigan manufacturer Bandit Industries has added three new dealer locations to the North American market in the first quarter of 2013. In the past 24 months, the company has added 180 employees and 24 new dealers in the United States and Canada.

“Having qualified dealers committed to our products-and to providing our customers with the best possible parts and service support-was a key to our record sales year in 2012,” said Bandit Industries President Jerry Morey.

“Our dealers are continuing to contribute greatly to our growth as we move through the first quarter of 2013.”

Bandit’s newest dealers will serve customers in Northern Florida, Southern Florida, and Central Canada. All will carry Bandit’s line of handfed wood chippers and stump grinders in addition to complete parts and service support.

Bobcat of Palm Beach/Broward operates two locations in Southern Florida-West Palm Beach and Pompano Beach. Contact information can found on their website at www.sbequipment.com.

Bobcat of Jacksonville serves customers in Northern Florida from their location in Jacksonville. Their website is www.bobcatjax.com.

Hepburn Enterprises is located in Winnipeg, serving customers throughout Manitoba and Central Canada. See them online at www.hepburnenterprises.com.

www.DiamondZ.com Info Request #180 March / April 2013 Soil & Mulch Producer News 15

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Latest U.S. Census Figures Show Wisconsin’s Forest Industry Steady in Rebuilding Economy

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ADISON, WI—Figures recently released from the 2011 U.S. Census indicate that Wisconsin’s forests aren’t just growing trees, they are growing jobs, with nearly 60,000 people working in forest-related positions statewide in about 1,300 businesses.

“Wisconsin continues to lead the nation in the value of forest products produced, demonstrating how our forests are the foundation of one of Wisconsin’s most important economic sectors,” said Paul DeLong, chief forester for the Department of Natural Resources. “Though the sustainable harvesting of timber can be visually concerning to some right after harvest, the resulting values include not only wood products but habitat for some highly desired wildlife and a healthy, growing forest that will produce an array of benefits long into the future.”

The data also indicate the forest products industry has held its own during the economy’s recent ride on the roller coaster.

“Significantly, the forest product industry’s importance as a percentage of manufacturing has stayed roughly the same as before the downturn,” said Roger Nacker, an economist and president of the Wisconsin Economic Development Institute. Nacker analyzes economic reports for the DNR Division of Forestry.

Steven Hubbard, DNR forest products services specialist, notes the growth in the forest products industry is good news for the entire state. For starters, last year the 2010 U.S. Census figures showed the industry had about 56,500 employees. The newly released figures show an industry job growth to 58,136.

Add to that a growth in the value of shipments to $19 billion – up from about $17 billion in 2010.

“This is why Wisconsin’s forests are the foundation of one of the most diverse economic sectors – and one of the strongest,” Hubbard said.

Wisconsin’s forest industry includes firms in the North American Industry Classification System, wood and wood products sector, and the furniture and fixtures and the paper and allied products sectors. Add to that the 270 firms in forestry and logging with a payroll of more than $27 million and 800 employees.

Nursery and tree production also are in addition to these numbers.

The forest products industry also supports thousands of related jobs, including those producing specialized machinery for the forest products and paper industries.

Overall, the industry contributes about $2.6 billion annually in wages to the Wisconsin economy, and supports about $228,000 in state and local taxes.

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Composting Continues to Gain Support Throughout U.S. Market

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ccording to an article from the Washington Post, composting is taking off throughout the US, although the pace is moving in fits and starts.

States vary widely in their rates of acceptance – from legislating zero waste policies (to reduce landfill waste by recycling and composting) – to launching commercial and residential composting programs. Nimby groups and, in some cases, industry opposition can slow things down.

However, some cities, such as Washington, D.C., have strong support from leaders. The nation’s capital received $600,000 in grant money, which it is using to build several compost sites and establish urban farms and gardens.

In 18 states, more than 170 communities across the country have some sort of residential food scrap recycling program and 2.3 million households are participating, according to the magazine, BioCycle.

That number is up from a mere 20 programs in 2005, not including privately-run programs.

Where policy and leadership support exists, a ripple effect seems to occur. Collection and transportation logistics get worked out, entrepreneurs begin to thrive and the transition is made.

“We’re finally at a point of figuring out how to make money through organics,” says Compost Cab founder Jeremy Brosowsky, who charges his 400 residential customers in the District of Columbia $32 a month to collect their food scraps, which he gives away to local farms and gardeners.

Nevertheless, industry observers say that large-scale, well-funded programs, such as those involving hospitals, universities and hotels, tend to reach success sooner than smaller, local efforts.

Long-term contracts with waste incineration sites have made it harder for some areas to develop organic recycling sites. Also, because waste collection contracts traditionally have been based on volume, the incentive to begin composting programs has yet to take hold. Once they start separating food waste and reducing pick up schedules due to lighter loads, however, certain operators are finding that costs decrease over time.

Waste Management, the nation’s largest waste hauler, disposal and recycling company operates 36 organic processing facilities from coast to coast. Moreover, Waste Management is expanding into “co-gen,” by investing in companies such as Waltham, Massachusetts-based Harvest Power, which accepts solid waste from municipalities in the United States and Canada and converts it into high-quality soils or energy.

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Rhode Island Food Composting Gains Support

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ROVIDENCE, RI—According to an article on ecoRINews, the once-fringe idea of food waste composting is moving from the backyard to the state capital as lawmakers and the State Department of Environmental Management (DEM) officials discuss how to update regulations.

A bill introduced in the state Senate would establish a commission to review diverting food waste from landfills. With goals of job creation and sustainability in mind, new regulations would allow expanded composting for schools, farmers and do-it-yourselfers.

Meanwhile, neighboring Connecticut has passed legislation requiring businesses to compost food scrap as soon as there is a permitted compost facility operating within 20 miles of their location. The rule will give commercial composters a guaranteed supply of waste.

The Rhode Island Senate Committee on Special Legislation and Veterans Affairs favored the concept of establishing a special study commission to create proposals for diverting food scrap. The bill, however, required updating and was held for further study. The legislation may also be included in an ongoing Senate study of paper and product packaging reduction.

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Colorado Timber Turnaround Predicted

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ORT COLLINS, CO—Forest managers in the Western states of the U.S. are closely watching for a complete turnaround of the timber industry in that region, according to the news website, AspenBusinessJournal. com. Although now is an ideal time for active forest management, industry groups want to see more land opened up for harvest.

Timber prices hit an eight-year high in March of 2013, in step with the reviving housing market. A forecast by The International Wood Markets trade association predicts even higher prices in two to three years, as U.S. and Canadian harvests may fall short of expected timber demand.

Mike Eckhoff, a PhD Candidate in forest science at Colorado State University, explains. “We’ve lost 80 percent of our (timber) productivity since the 1980s. This could be a boon for Colorado’s timber industry provided that timber is actually made available for the industry to use.”

Sales were virtually chewed away by pine beetle epidemics, along with the years lower altitude fire suppression, which prevented harvests. Timber industry representatives, such as The Intermountain Forest Association, remain skeptical of the U.S. Forest Service. Recently, a spokesperson pointed to the prospect of European competition, unfavorable policymaking by the Forest Service, and the impact of federal funding cuts on the bureaucracy itself, as issues of concern to mill and logging companies.

With prices set to skyrocket, the beginnings of what is hoped to be longterm revival are taking shape in Colorado and Wyoming. The momentum could be fueled by harvesting millions of acres of standing dead timber and salvaging selected beetle-kill pine, if loggers can just gain access. And, that will depend on largely on decisions made by the U.S. Forest Service.

“Colorado produces an annual net forest growth of 1.5 billion board feet, but we only harvest 6 percent of that, or 87 million board feet,” Eckhoff notes, optimistically. “In other words the removals do not significantly reduce the interest nor do they touch the principal.”

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Info Request #119 March / April 2013 Soil & Mulch Producer News 21

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Oregon Lawmakers Try to Balance Sustainability and Public Interest

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ORTLAND, OR—Oregonlive.com reports that the controversy caused by a Portland-area food composting facility has legislators working out ways to support a fledgling industry while providing protections for surrounding communities.

When more than 1,500 odor complaints were lodged against a Recology-owned processing facility located on the city’s outskirts, numerous issues related to twin goals of sustainability and economic development became apparent --and very thorny.

Lawmakers now are focusing not simply on where compost facilities are permitted to operate, but how they obtain permits and how proposed facilities will operate. Possible solutions, such as consistent and clearly-stated zoning pre-application steps, are being discussed as ways to help state and local bureaucracies get on the same page and stay there.

“We need to come up with ... regulations that will kind of encompass everything and will make certain that those people who are going to be affected can be protected,” State Sen. Alan Olsen says.

“But also not inhibit the growth of free-market composting.”

A placeholder bill, Senate Bill 462, provides that any composting facility that composts certain type of feedstocks may not be located within a specified distance of boundary of incorporated city. The bill provides exception for a composting facility located on land zone exclusively for agriculture, however.

The waste company, Recology, drew fire from residents over odors created by its North Plains facility just outside the city of Portland. The facility operated a pilot food waste composting program and despite about $5 million worth of major improvements to address the smell, public and political sentiment remained negative. Now, the company must shut down its Nature’s Needs site by April 1, 2013. A spokesperson said the business will truck some 16,000 tons of Portland commercial food waste more than 200 miles away to another facility in Washington State, where it plans to accept waste from Seattle, as well.

Other proposed composting facilities in Portland and the surrounding area have been controversial, as well. An enclosed biogas facility, which has been in the planning stages for some time – and lauded as an innovative addition to the city’s sustainability portfolio – is being scrutinized.

In the 1990s, another food-waste facility was closed after less than a year in operation.

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Composting Manure Kills Roundworms

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EXINGTON, KY—A study by University of Kentucky scientists has found composting horse manure to be an exceptionally effective method of destroying the large roundworms that often infest foals.

The parasite, Parascaris equorum, can be deadly. It limits nutrient absorption and can cause intestinal rupture and death in the young animals. Quite common throughout the world, the roundworm multiplies rapidly – producing over 200,000 eggs a day. Because it becomes infective within about two weeks of being passed in feces, and because it can survive for years, it has been challenging to control.

University of Kentucky Department of Animal and Food Sciences researchers conducted the manure composting experiment at a horse farm in that state. An earlier study had established a 10-12 week period for windrow decomposition. For the roundworm experiment, the scientists removed horse manure and bedding and piled it into windrows measuring approximately 140 feet long by 9 feet wide and 3 feet deep. Next they placed P. equorum eggs into mesh chambers, a method that allowed compost liquids and bacteria to pass through. They placed one group of egg chambers in the middle of a windrow, where heat and anaerobic activity were the highest. They removed these chambers daily, while the compost was mechanically turned and aerated. They positioned another group of egg chambers on the outside and in the side of a separate windrow, but mechanically turned and aerated that compost every other day. Temperature and carbon dioxide levels within each windrow were monitored daily. A third group of egg chambers, the controls, were monitored in the lab at 4 degrees Celsius.

Every two days, one chamber from each group was removed and incubated at room temperature for 21 days, and then the eggs were examined microscopically to assess if they were viable. (Viable eggs contained larvae.)

The chambers treated with constant exposure in the middle of the compost windrow contained about 10 per cent viable eggs on Day 2 and 0 per cent by Day 8. The intermittent compost treatment resulted in 16 percent viable eggs on Day 2 and 0 percent by Day 6. The control chambers had average P. equorum egg viabilities of 79 percent throughout the 18 days of the study. The researchers concluded that not only was the windrow composting system effective in eliminating viable P. equorum eggs, it did so quickly.

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6075 Hopkins Road • Mentor, OH 44060 Ph: 440-257-6453 • Fax: 440-257-6459 Email: downassoc2@oh.rr.com VOL. VII NO. 2

MAR /APR 2013

Inside This Issue

Contract-Bagging … A Great Way to Increase Your Product Offering and Profits!

Page 1 Food Waste Recycling Continues to Grow Throghout the U.S. Page 4 Study Finds Nearly 50% of Retail Firewood Infested With Insects Page 10 Latest U.S. Census Figures Show Wisconsin’s Forest Industry Steady in Rebuilding Economy Page 16 Composting Continues to Gain Support Throughout U.S. Market Page 19 Colorado Timber Turnaround Predicted Page 21

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