S&mp nov dec '14 final

November / December 2014

Vol. VIII No. 6

Serving Soil, Mulch, Compost & Wood Pellet Producers www.SoilandMulchProducerNews.com

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NEWS

New England Leads Nation in Food Waste Recovery, Four States On Board

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rompted by rapidly shrinking landfill space combined with a growing national movement to recover food scraps, four New England states have passed stringent laws mandating separation of food waste from general trash.

Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and Rhode Island all have enacted legislation that, while slightly differing in each state, effectively bans the co-mingling of food waste with other recyclables and general trash. The laws in these states are the toughest in the nation, and make recycling mandatory Recognizing the food waste conundrum as a national issue, these four states have taken the problem head on, by enacting new regulations.

And, according to the U.S. EPA, these rules are coming none too late. The EPA says more food reaches landfills than any other single material in municipal solid waste. In 2012 alone, more than 36 million tons of food waste was generated, with only five percent diverted from landfills and incinerators for composting.

The EPA cites a number of reasons to divert food scrap from landfills including environmental benefits such as reducing landfill methane emissions, reducing resource use associated with food production, creating a valuable soil amendment, and improving public sanitation. Economic benefits include lower disposal costs, reduction of over-purchasing and labor costs, and receiving tax benefits by donating food.

According to K.C. Alexander, Organics Recycling Specialist with the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP), the state’s mandatory recycling legislation was first passed in 2011, with food scrap regulations added last year. The mandatory rules already target leaves and grass clippings. Thus food scraps became the next logical step in the recycling agenda.

Alexander says the new recycling legislation was added, in part, because the rate of waste recycling and composting in the state has remained stuck at about 26 percent over the past decade. Connecticut still disposes of 2.4 million tons of trash annually, or an estimated 1,370 pounds of trash per person per year.

Because the state has only a few landfills, most of Connecticut’s bulky trash is shipped out-of-state.

The state’s goal is now a 60 percent recycling rate.

The new food scrap law went into effect Jan. 1, 2014 calling for the recycling of commercially generated source-separated organic materials.

The legislation, Alexander explains, addresses commercial food wholesalers or distributors, industrial food manufacturers or processors, supermarkets, and resorts or conference centers.

It states that if these businesses are located no more than 20 miles from an authorized source-separated organic material composting facility and generate an average projected volume of not less than 104 tons per year of waste, they must separate the organic materials from other Continued on page 3

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5/2/2014 3:06:14 PM

Soil

New England Leads Nation in Food Waste Recovery Continued from page 1

solid waste and send it to the composting facility.

After January 1, 2020, the law lowers the minimum tonnage requirement to 52 tons per year.

Alexander adds that businesses affected by this law, can also meet requirements by composting source-separated organic waste on site or treating it on-site via organic treatment equipment. “ We h a d a fo o d s c rap p ro c e s s i n g infrastructure that had a gap. There were simply not enough places available for recycling food waste. I believe this mandatory food scrap legislation will provide incentive for companies to come into Connecticut and build the infrastructure that’s necessary to handle the food scraps,” Alexander says.

She notes there are now six resource recovery facilities operational or planned for in the state - three existing composting facilities and three anaerobic digesting plants that have applied for permits. She notes this is woefully inadequate for a state that puts 13 percent of its food scraps in the waste stream.

“But if we build it they will come. In other words because the state has passed this mandatory regulation regarding food waste, we are confident companies will invest in the composting and anaerobic digestion facilities necessary to handle the increased volume,” she notes.

Neighboring Massachusetts has 14 active landfills, but is planning for the day these dumps are filled by enacting broad reaching food waste regulations under the existing waste management authority.

According to David W. Cash, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, food waste regulations have been under discussion for at least 10 to 15 years, due in part, to the fact that 30-40 percent of the stream is organic waste.

In fact, he notes the state’s businesses and households still pitch 6.5 million tons of garbage every year – enough to fill up Fenway Park 74 times. And compostable organics make up more than 30 percent of all that trash.

Cash explains the food waste ban prohibits disposing of the food scraps in garbage for businesses and institutions producing one ton or more of scraps per week.

Whereas many people see food waste as the red headed stepchild of recyclables, Cash sees these organics as income producers. And he views their conversion as a way to fight greenhouse gas emissions in his state.

“Our food waste regulations hit the sweet spot unlike any other environmental regs in our state. We can cut greenhouse gas and develop an economic opportunity at the same time,” Cash says.

As the ban went in to effect on Oct. 1, 2014, Cash points out of the 1,700 commercial

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entities that have to comply with the food waste prohibition, 1,400 were either complying or were on the path to compliance. Furthermore, Cash claims there has been literally no opposition to the food waste ban, noting many businesses who fall under the ton per week limit, are starting to divert their food waste as well.

He explains that this high level of compliance is based upon the amount of information and assistance the state has given to businesses as well as a third party, RecyclingWorks In Massachusetts.

Contracted by the state to help businesses and institutions comply with the waste ban by increasing their recycling efforts, RecyclingWorks provides free web-based resources and guidance, including a searchable service provider database, a phone hotline and direct technical assistance.

With the assistance of the state, the private firm and an apparent willing base of recyclers, Cash says the Commonwealth’s overall goals for reducing waste disposed are 30 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050. The organic diversion goal is 450,000 tons per year of an estimated 1.31.5 million tons per year by 2020, or 30 percent.

He cites six major, positive outcomes to food waste reduction for his state as well as other New England states currently facing the problem.

First is the obvious reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from landfills. Second is increased job creation due to new businesses such as anaerobic digestion and composting facilities.

Next is the reduced use of dwindling landfill space as well as the cost of shipping food to these locations. Fourth is a reduction in the cost for food disposal. Fifth is the expansion of clean, renewable energy. And finally, the new regulations foster the reuse of food products.

C a s h p o i n t s t o t h e U n ive r s i t y o f Massachusetts at Lowell as an example of how the food waste ban might play out for a typical institution.

“The university knew its cafeteria was producing too much food waste. The first step it took was to remove cafeteria trays from the scene because officials knew students were simply taking too much food on the trays. Now students leave less food waste by carrying plates of food,” he explains.

And finally the university deployed the latest in food waste processing technology in its food waste diversion scheme. The waste is sent to a composting facility and the resulting enriched compost is returned to the university for use on its landscaping and community gardens, Cash notes.

Although, like some states, Massachusetts’ food waste facilities are not yet full, the state is planning for the future by enacting regulatory reform in order to speed up the process for the siting of new composting and anaerobic Continued on page 22

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Replacing the Environmental Protection Agency – A Constructive Approach A plan to replace the United States Environmental Protection Agency with a Committee of the Whole of the 50 state environmental protection agencies, utilizing a phased five-year transition period.

By Jay Lehr, Ph.D.1

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n 1968, when I was serving as the head of a groundwater professional society, it became obvious to me and a handful of others that the United States did not have any serious focus on potential problems with the quality of its air, drinking water, and surface water, and that the nation suffered from waste disposal problems and contamination from mining and agriculture. I held the nation’s first Ph.D. in groundwater hydrology, which gave me insight to understand the problems. I was asked by the director of the Bureau of Water Hygiene in the U.S. Department of Health to serve on a panel to study the potential to expand the bureau’s oversight into a full environmental protection organization.

Collectively, we spoke before dozens of congressional committees in both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, drawing attention to mounting environmental pollution problems. We called for the establishment of a national Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and in 1971 we succeeded.

I was appointed to a variety of the new agency’s advisory councils and over the next 10 years I helped write a significant number of legislative bills that were to make up a true safety net for our environment. They included the Water Pollution Control Act (later renamed the Clean Water Act), Safe Drinking Water Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Surface Mining and Reclamation Act (which, surprisingly, covered deep mines as well), Clean Air Act, Federal Insecticide, Rodenticide, and Fungicide Act, and Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (which we now know as Superfund).

These acts worked well in protecting the environment and the health of our citizens, with the exception of Superfund, which proved to be too overreaching and wreaked havoc with U.S. business as companies operating within the law were fined countless dollars and required to pay huge sums after the fact for clean-up of waste disposal that had been within the law at the time of the activity.

Environmental Activists Take Over EPA eginning around 1981, environmental activist groups recognized EPA could be used to advance their political agenda by regulating virtually all human activities regardless of their impact on the environment. Politicians recognized they could win votes by posing as protectors of the public health and wildlife. Industries saw a way to use regulations to handicap competitors or help themselves to public subsidies. Since that time, not a single environmental law or regulation has been passed that benefitted either the environment or society.

The takeover of EPA and all of its activities by environmental activists was slow and methodical over the past 30 years. Today, EPA is all but a wholly owned subsidiary of environmental activist groups. Its rules account for about half of the nearly $2 trillion a year cost of complying with all national regulations in the U.S.2 President Barack Obama is using it to circumvent Congress to impose regulations on the energy sector that will cause prices to “skyrocket.” It is a rogue agency, the topic of books with titles like Regulators Gone Wild 3 and Out of Bounds, Out of Control.4 For more than 20 years, I have worked to expose this story to the public, beginning with my 1991 book Rational Readings on Environmental Concerns,5 on which 50 environmental scientists collaborated to describe the manner in which their own fields had been hijacked and distorted to allow fear-mongering of an unconscionable nature. Other authors have discovered and have been working to expose this as well.

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Replace, Don’t Try to Fix, EPA t is tempting to imagine EPA can be “fixed,” that its abuse of power and pursuit of political agendas without regard to their effect on the environment could be stopped if only the right people were appointed to run

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it, or perhaps if Congress passed laws requiring better science or more costbenefit analysis. This is wrong. As Fred L. Smith, Jr., wrote back in 1992, The serious failures of environmental regulation do not occur randomly, or, for that matter, as a result of bad management (although this may occasionally be the case). Rather, they stem from deep-rooted institutional and political incentives that systematically bias the EPA’s decisions. Better science and risk assessment procedures, public participation, and civic education, in and of themselves, do little to counteract these biases, and may exacerbate them.6 Incremental reform of EPA is simply not an option. As James V. DeLong wrote in 2002, It should surprise no one that 25 years of talk about regulatory reform has achieved little. The vague language of the federal environmental statutes and the corresponding massive delegation of authority to EPA to make law, enforce law, and adjudicate violations concentrate tremendous power in the hands of the agency, breeding insensitivity, zealotry, and abuse. Experience has shown that regulatory agencies will tend to expand until checked, and the potential for regulatory expansion at the EPA, unbounded as it is by congressional language, is vast.7 For these reasons, I have come to believe the national EPA must be systematically dismantled and replaced by a Committee of the Whole of the 50 state environmental protection agencies. Those agencies in nearly all cases long ago took over primary responsibility for the implementation of environmental laws passed by Congress (or simply handed down by EPA as fiat rulings without congressional vote or oversight).

When national EPA was established in 1971, the federal government had no choice but to oversee implementation of the initial seven safety net laws.

Soon thereafter, however, every state established an independent agency that filed for and was granted primary control of the implementation of the existing laws. With only rare exceptions, the states are now fully in control of the regulatory program.

States have a comparative advantage over the national government in responding to environmental problems because of the major role they play in the “construction and protection of urban infrastructure, regulation of land use, enforcement of building codes, and, certainly not least, natural disaster response.”8 The federalist system adopted when EPA was created recognized this reality and still looks pretty good on paper, but state agencies are continually harassed to ensure no one evades the heavy hand of hundreds of new regulations passed over the past three decades.

The initial laws I helped write have become increasingly more draconian, yet they have not benefitted our environment or the health of our citizens. Instead, they suppress our economy and the right of our citizens to make an honest living. It seems to me, and to others, that this is actually the intention of those in EPA and in Congress who want to see government power expanded without regard to whether it is needed to protect the environment or public health.

With 30 years of experience, these 50 state environmental agencies are ready to take over management of the nation’s environment. Only the EPA research laboratories should be left in place at the national level to answer additional scientific questions, and even these laboratories must be substantially reorganized, freed from the grip of insiders who use them to justify new regulations rather than genuinely study the science.9 Increasingly, the federal laboratories should be exposed to competition from state-funded research efforts to keep them honest.

Eighty percent of what is now national EPA’s budget could be eliminated, and the remaining 20 percent could be used to run the research labs and administer the Committee of the Whole of the 50 state environmental agencies. A relatively small administrative structure would be needed to allow

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the states to refine existing environmental laws in a manner more suitable to the primary requirement of protecting our environment without thwarting national progress in industry and the development of our natural resources and energy supplies.

Five-Year Phase-Out ational EPA could be phased out over five years, with a one-year preparation period followed by a four-year program in which 25 percent of the agency’s activities would be passed to the Committee of the Whole each year. The Committee of the Whole would be made up of representatives from each state from each significant area of concern. The committee would be divided into subcommittees, reflecting how EPA is set up, though many programs and offices within EPA may be eliminated at the will of the states.

For instance, offices whose primary purpose is oversight of the state agencies no longer would be necessary.

The Committee of the Whole would determine which regulations are actually mandated in law by Congress and which were established by EPA without congressional approval. Rules written clearly into legislation would be recommended for continuance or would be included in a request that Congress consider ending them because the Committee of the Whole deems them unnecessary in their current form. Regulations not supported by writings within legislation would be considered by the applicable subcommittees and the whole committee for alteration or repeal by a two-thirds vote of the Committee of the Whole.

Until the Committee of the Whole acted on each individual regulation, all regulations would remain in force. Many regulations would give states latitude to act, and others would be required of all states by a two-thirds vote of the Committee of the Whole. Each state would be funded sufficiently to increase its staff to include people whose primary jobs would be to serve on subcommittees of the Committee of the Whole overseeing the issues previously overseen by the current EPA. This phase-out of national EPA could be done in an orderly manner within five years. Oversight of the existing EPA research labs eventually would be ceded to a subcommittee of the whole.

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Organizing the Committee hen one considers how national EPA was established, along with the growth of the state agencies, this plan is actually a logical endpoint that could have begun 30 years ago. The specific details of the five-year transfer from the Washington, DC-based EPA and its 10 regional offices would be carried out as follows.

The federal budget for environmental protection would be reduced from $8.2 billion to $2 billion. Staffing would be reduced from more than 15,000 to 300, and those 300 would serve in the new national EPA headquarters to be located centrally in Topeka, Kansas, to allow the closest contact with the individual states and reduce travel costs from the states to the central headquarters of the Committee of the Whole. The 300 individuals working there would consist of six delegate-employees from each of the 50 states. The personnel currently working at EPA’s more-than-two-dozen research centers would remain in place until the Committee of the Whole chooses to make changes.

National EPA is currently divided into the following 14 offices: Office of the Administrator American Indian Environmental Office Office of International and Tribal Affairs Office of Policy Office of Administration and Resources Management Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Office of Air and Radiation Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response Office of Water Office of the Chief Financial Officer Office of General Counsel Office of Environmental Information Office of Research and Development In the first year of transition, all national EPA employees would be informed of the five-year transition period, allowing them ample time to seek other employment opportunities. Additionally, during year one the two

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offices relating to Indian issues – American Indian Environmental Office and Office of International and Tribal Affairs – would be transferred to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, which should welcome this responsibility along with about half of the monies budgeted for them at EPA. During the first year, all 300 employees relocating from the 50 states (six each) would begin work in the new Topeka, Kansas, offices established early in year one.

A chairman of the Committee of the Whole would be elected by the 300 delegate- employees to a three-year term early in the transition. The delegateemployees would be assigned to subcommittees corresponding to the offices that currently exist in Washington, DC. During year two, all activities of the Offices of Policy, Administration and Resources Management, and Enforcement and Compliance Assurance would be transferred to Topeka from Washington, DC and the regional offices.

In year three, all activities of the Offices of Air and Radiation and Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention would be transferred to Topeka.

In year four, the responsibilities of the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response and Office of Water would move to Topeka. In the final year, the Offices of the Chief Financial Officer, General Counsel, Environmental Information, and the Office of the Administrator would have their responsibilities moved to Topeka.

During each year of transition, members of the Topeka staff would be assigned for periods of time to the Washington, DC offices and the regional offices to study the activities of the existing units. It is quite likely that as the office responsibilities are transferred to Topeka, the Committee of the Whole will choose to eliminate some of them entirely.

If some DC offices experience an early excessive attrition of employees relocating before the phase-out of their offices, an earlier transfer of responsibility to Topeka may be required.

As monies are freed up in the transition from 15,000 federal employees to 300, each state would be allocated $20 million to enhance its new independent responsibilities and replace the six employees transferred to Topeka. In addition to that use of $1 billion (50 x $20 million), it is anticipated the management of the Topeka offices and the continuation of the research and development program at the national level would require a second billion dollars, allowing the permanent reduction of an $8.2 billion annual federal outlay for environmental protection to a total of $2 billion.

Rescuing Federalism, Saving the Environment ot only would this transition save large sums of money, but the efficiency and quality of environmental protection would be enhanced by placing power and responsibility in the hands of the individual states. It is, after all, well-known that government close to the location of the governed is best for all.10 Most states will enthusiastically embrace this plan, as their opposition to EPA’s “regulatory train wreck” grows11 and since it gives them the autonomy and authority they were promised when EPA was first created and the funding to carry it out.

The Committee of the Whole of the 50 state environmental agencies would meet the needs of the nation more effectively and more efficiently than the national EPA. Fifty state environmental protection agencies with more than 30 years of experience have the talent to do the job without the oversight of 15,000 federal employees. They are less vulnerable to lobbying and intimidation by national politicians, activists, and special-interest groups than are their counterparts in Washington, DC. Being located in Topeka, Kansas, they will be far away from the beltway culture that corrupts public servants who come to the nation’s capital with even the best of intentions.

It made sense for there to be a single national agency given authority to enforce the nation’s new environmental protection laws in the first decade of the 1970s. But by the end of that decade, the lion’s share of benefits from that noble experiment were already achieved and the states could have been, and should have been, allowed to play their intended role in implementing the new programs. Authority should have remained in the hands of the states, where innovation would be rewarded and accountability to local voters and taxpayers was more likely to be preserved. But as is the nature of all bureaucracies, national EPA grew vastly larger than any of its founders and architects intended. It was coopted by various interest groups, and today it stands in the way of environmental protection and is a threat to individual liberty and commerce.

It’s time for the national EPA to go. The path forward is now clear and simple: A five-year transition from a federal government bureaucracy to a

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Replacing the Environmental Protection Agency Continued from page 5

Committee of the Whole composed of the 50 state environmental protection agencies.

To those who say this would fail to adequately protect the public’s health or the environment, I urge you to reflect on the poor job currently being done

by EPA, and then to meet some of the men and women staffing state EPA offices and see for yourself the sophistication, commitment, and resources they have to do the job. You will not remain doubters for long. And to those who like this plan but think it is utopian or impossible, I can tell you as someone who was there at the beginning of EPA, who helped write the laws and advised its founders, that this can be done quickly and efficiently.

All that is missing is the political will.

Reprinted, with permission, from Heartland Policy Brief, July 15, 2014, The Heartland Institute, http://heartland.org/policy-documents/replacing-environmental-protection-agency.

About the Author

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sales@cvcompost.com www.cvcompost.com/ccovers.php

ay Lehr, Ph.D. is science director and senior fellow of The Heartland Institute, an independent nonprofit organization based in Chicago. He is a leading authority on groundwater hydrology. After graduating from Princeton University at the age of 20 with a degree in geological engineering, he went on to receive the nation’s first Ph.D. in groundwater hydrology from the University of Arizona.

He later became executive director of the National Association of Groundwater Scientists and Engineers.

Dr. Lehr is the author of more than 500 magazine and journal articles and 30 books. He is editor of Rational Readings on Environmental Concerns (1992 and two subsequent editions), McGraw-Hill’s Handbook on Environmental Science, Health and Technology (2000), Wiley’s Remediation Technologies Handbook (2004), Modern Groundwater Exploration (with Robert A. Bisson, 2004), Environmental Instrumentation and Analysis Handbook (2005), the six-volume Water Encyclopedia (2005), The Fluoride Wars (with R. Allan Freeze, 2009), and Nuclear Energy Encyclopedia: Science, Technology, and Applications (with Steven B. Krivit, Thomas B. Kingery, 2011).

About The Heartland Institute

T

he Heartland Institute is a national nonprofit research and education organization. Founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1984, Heartland’s mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. Its activities are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Approximately 230 academics and professional economists participate in Heartland’s peer-review process and 160 elected officials serve on its Legislative Forum. Fourteen senior fellows are available to write, speak, or comment indepth on a wide range of policy issues. Heartland’s 12-member Board of Directors is chaired by Dr. Herbert Walberg, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and research professor emeritus of psychology and education at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Heartland is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois and has a full-time staff of 31 and a 2014 budget of $6 million. It is supported by the voluntary contributions of approximately 5,000 supporters. For more information, visit our Web site at www.heartland.org, call 312/377-4000, or write to The Heartland Institute, One South Wacker Drive #2740, Chicago, Illinois 60606.

Jay Lehr, Ph.D. (jlehr@heartland.org) is science director of The Heartland Institute. A more complete biography appears at the end of this document.

1

2 3 4 5

Wayne W. Crews, Ten Thousand Commandments. Washington, DC: Competitive Enterprise Institute, 2014.

Rich Trzupek, Regulators Gone Wild: How the EPA Is Ruining American Industry. New York, NY: Encounter Books, 2011.

James V. DeLong, Out of Bounds, Out of Control: Regulatory Enforcement at the EPA. Washington, DC: Cato Institute, 2002.

Jay H. Lehr, ed., Rational Readings on Environmental Concerns. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 1992.

Fred L. Smith, Jr., “Conclusion: Environmental Policy at the Crossroad,” in Michael S. Greve and Fred L. Smith, Jr., eds., Environmental Politics: Public Costs, Private Rewards. New York, NY: Praeger Publishers, 1992, p. 183.

6

James V. DeLong, Out of Bounds, Out of Control: Regulatory Enforcement at the EPA. Washington, DC: Cato Institute, 2002, p. 82.

7

Winston Harrington, Promoting Innovative Climate Adaptation through Federalism. Washington, DC: Resources for the Future, August 2010, p. 2.

8

Patrick Michaels, “State-Funded Science: It’s Worse Than You Think!” Cato Unbound, August 12, 2013, http://www.cato-unbound.org/2013/08/12/patrick-j-michaels/state-funded-science-its-worse-you-think.

9

See Terry L. Anderson and Peter J. Hill, eds., Environmental Federalism. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1997.

10

info@sundancegrinders.com

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11 See “EPA’s Regulatory Train Wreck,” an initiative of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) started in 2011, http://www.alec.org/initiatives/epas-regulatory-train-wreck/. ALEC has produced three reports so far as part of this initiative: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Assault on State Sovereignty (2013), Economy Derailed: Stateby-State Impacts of the EPA Regulatory Train Wreck (2012), and EPA’s Regulatory Train Wreck: Strategies for State Legislators, (2011). All are available on the ALEC website.

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New Railway Expected to Encourage Pellet Market in Mississippi

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aynesborrow, MS — The Rail Authority of East Mississippi (RAEM) will be studying the impact of the expanding global wood pellet market on the region, reports the online Mississippi Business Journal, MSBusiness.com.

RAEM is a multi-county partnership whose purpose is to develop the East Mississippi Intermodal Rail Corridor and create continuous rail service between the Gulf of Mexico and Meridian. The rail authority is the driving force behind the construction the new 50 mile rail line dedicated primarily to handling increased wood pellet production. The demand for wood pellets, largely exported to Europe, is expected to grow dramatically in the coming years.

Various business interests are already putting infrastructure in place, according to RAEM Executive Director, Larry Gandy. A proposed wood pellet facility in George County would signal a need for rail service to Pascagoula, which he says has already invested in constructing receiving and storage facilities. Gandy believes re-establishing the line is essential to the region’s economic growth.

“It would open up the whole east side of Mississippi to a port,” Gandy said. “[Trains] can already get to the port, but this would be a direct line to the port and along that line, we expect a lot of industry could be located, particularly in the wood pellet industry.”

One million dollars in funding for economic and environmental impact studies was set aside by the Mississippi Legislature in 2013. North Carolina-based Forest2Market is conducting the economic impact study, which will look at the economics of the railway extension and be a source of valuable data for foresters in the southeastern region of the United States.

Forest2Market is a North Carolina-based firm known for its bioenergy research and quantitative analysis. The company works closely with pellet manufacturers to determine suitable locations for new pellet plants, helping to identify wood pellet production opportunities.

“With the high costs of transportation, the availability of rail service in the region will make a significant impact for the economy and benefit our forestry industry,” added Wayne County Supervisor Jerry Hutto. “The study will enable us to better understand our competitive position in the global forest products market.”

The environmental impact study is required by the National Environmental Policy Act before construction can begin.

Texas Forestry Bounces Back from Recession

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ongview, TX – According to a NewsJournal.com article, Texas’ forestry industry is now in the state’s top 10 manufacturing sectors, among the state’s leading agricultural commodities including cattle, cotton, milk, broilers, greenhouse and nursery, corn, wheat and eggs.

Texas’ forest sector had a total economic impact of $9.5 billion in industrial output, $4.1 billion in value added and 39,835 jobs.

The value of the region’s harvested timber ranked ninth in 2011 among the state’s leading agricultural commodities, behind cattle, cotton, milk, broilers, greenhouse and nursery, corn, wheat and eggs.

According to a new analysis by the Texas A&M Forest Service, forestry- and wood-based industries contributed $30.3 million to the state economy, with East Texas’ roster of mostly family-run businesses accounting for $5.7 billion worth of goods and services and 19,000 jobs of 130,000 total forestry jobs in the state.

The 43-county region known as East Texas has more than 80 percent of the state’s Continued on next page

www.agricoatings.com

www.agricoatings.com

info@agricoatings.com

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Soil & Mulch Producer News November / December 2014

Soil Continued from previous page productive timberland. Of the state’s total 61.8 million forested acres, 12.1 million acres are located here, and it is the main producer of primary forest products such as lumber, structural panels, paper and pulp.

Between 2011 and 2012, the forest service numbers show the region’s total forest harvest climbed more than 9 percent. The wood products industry is still suffering the effects of the Great Recession, however. Compared to 2007, total industry output was still down 22 percent while employment was down 21 percent.

Secondary forest products such as windows, doors and engineered wood products that use wood along with other materials contributed more than two-thirds of the sector’s total industry output. It also employed 72 percent of that sector’s workforce.

Texas forestry firms posted more than $1.8 billion worth of exports in 2012. While the East Texas region was the largest contributor to those exports, accounting for about 42 percent of the total value, North Central Texas is leading the state in direct economic impact from forestry.

The North Central region has the highest concentration of secondary forest products, paper and paperboard firms, and its forestry sector delivered $13.3 billion in industrial output. The region’s wood products market accounts for another $5.8 billion in value added and 56,193 employees.

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Mulch Producer NEWS

Massachusetts Food Waste Ban Takes Effect

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pringfield, MA – Massachusetts supermarkets, institutions and hotels that generate more than a ton of food waste a month are now prohibited from sending it to landfill, reports National Public Radio, NPR.org.

The law, which took effect on October 1, is hailed by some as a forward leap in recycling and reducing greenhouse gas. Some people argue, albeit, mildly, that the infrastructure for handling the waste is inadequate.

Dave Cash, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner told NPR that about 75 percent participation is a good sign. Early adopters and pilot programs helped smooth the way for such broad acceptance, he noted.

The National Waste and Recycling Association’s Steve Changaris praised the state’s food waste ban law as a step in the right direction.

Nonetheless, his organization has some concerns about loopholes. “It doesn’t address where is it going to go, whether it’s more expensive. It doesn’t address whether it has to be shipped 300 miles.

It doesn’t address a whole boatload of things,” he says.

Meanwhile the state Department of Energy and Environmental Affairs has created programming infrastructure to support large-scale anaerobic digestion and other recycling and bioenergy technologies, as well as composting ventures.

Massachusetts, along with Vermont, and Connecticut are the first states to enact bans against food waste in landfills. New York City is also on the forefront, and San Francisco’s been doing it for more than a decade.

Americans toss roughly 34 million tons of food in their trash every year.

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November / December 2014 Soil & Mulch Producer News

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Delaware Compost Facility to Close

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ilmington, DE – Citing repeated c o m p l a i n t s ab o u t f r e q u e n t , u n c o n t ro l l e d o d o r s, D N R E C Secretary David Small has issued a Secretary’s Order requiring Peninsula Compost Company to shut down, reports NewsWorks.org.

In 2009, the Peninsula Compost Company began composting food and yard waste into organic fertilizer at its facility near the Port of Wilmington. The order ends a long history of

residential complaints and DNREC fines for violations of environmental rules.

The DNREC order bans Organic Recycling Center from accepting waste after January 16, 2015; however, the company has already stopped accepting food, yard waste and wood waste at the facility. It must next comply with a statemandated closure plan that specifies all compost and related waste to be removed from the facility

by March 31, 2015.

City of Elyria, Ohio and Barnes Nursery Announce Yard Waste Recycling Agreement

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he City of Elyria, Ohio and Barnes Nursery recently announced that they have reached a multiyear agreement under which Barnes Nursery will operate Elyria’s Compost Facility.

The agreement covers the operations of the facility and marketing of compost and mulch derived from recycling of the city’s yard waste. The City of Elyria has a population of approximately 55,000 and 22,000 households. The City generates approximately 22,000 cubic yards of yard waste annually – this waste is being diverted from the landfill by going to this site.

“We look forward to a great working partnership with Barnes Nursery. They have a depth of experience in this field and residents will see an emphasis from them on customer service and efficiency”, Mary Siwierka, Safety Service .

Barnes Nursery will receive yard waste at the site. Products derived from recycled yard waste will be sold at the facility, beginning in 2015. These products include mulch, topsoil blends, planting mix, and compost.

Barnes Nursery began its composting operations in 1992 at their Huron, Ohio location and currently serves many other northern Ohio communities.

“Peninsula Compost Company has placed an undue burden on the quality of life of residents in the City of Wilmington, parts of the City of New Castle and part of New Castle County – particularly those living in close proximity to the facility -- due to frequent uncontrolled odors,” Secretary Small said in an official statement by his office.

The company has been unable to maintain compliance with DNREC’s Beneficial Use Determination (BUD) permit, according to the Secretary’s office. Peninsula opened the facility in 2009 after approval of the BUD, which allowed the company to accept and process hatchery waste, food waste, yard waste, wood waste, and animal bedding. Peninsula used the organic materials to make the compost products for sale to the public. The company was processing about 115,000 tons of waste per year.

The DNREC cited violations including non-operational equipment, unapproved quantities of waste or finished compost, noncompostables and trash left on the site for extended periods of time; inadequate drainage and poor maintenance of stormwater ponds and aeration systems; not properly maintaining the Gore® Cover composting system; problematic compost mixtures; fires at the facility; and failure to develop adequate markets to meet production demands.

In 2012, the company diverted about 100,000 tons of waste from landfills in Delaware and the region.

A spokesman for Peninsula Compost said the company will continue to process existing materials on site as they prepare to close the business.

“Customers did not properly sort their wastes. Contamination levels – namely the presence of plastics in the organic waste we received – were high and this affected our ability to process this waste and at times create the grade of compost we wanted to produce,” the spokesman explained.

The compost facility was processing about 115,000 tons of waste per year. Now those customers will have to find new composting facilities or the waste will be sent to landfills.

Secretary Small noted that composting can be an effective process to recycle organics while minimizing impacts on the environment and the public, but Peninsula’s spokesman called the composting business model “unsustainable,” mainly due to frequent contamination problems.

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10 Soil & Mulch Producer News November / December 2014

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November / December 2014 Soil & Mulch Producer News 11

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EIA: Wood Biomass Use Will Increase in 2015

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ashington, D.C – According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Short-Term Energy Outlook released in November, wood biomass numbers are looking up for heat and power generation.

EIA statistics show a steady increase in energy from biomass, which is expected to generate 118,000 MWh electricity per day in 2015, up from 116,000 MWh per day in 2014 and 109,000 MWh per day in 2013. Similarly, waste biomass is expected to be used to generate 58,000 MWh of electricity per day next year, up from 54,000 MWh per day this year and 55,000 MWh per day last year.

The electric power sector is expected to consume 0.262 quadrillion Btu (quad) of wood biomass and 0.277 quad of waste biomass next year, up from 0.25 quad and 0.259 quad this year, respectively. The industrial sector is expected to consume 1.198 quad of wood in 2015, down from 1.25 quad this year. The industrial sector is also expected to consume0.0169 quad of waste biomass next year, down from 0.172 quad this year. The commercial sector is expected to consume 0.091 quad of wood biomass and 0.046 quad of waste biomass next year, compared to 0.079 quad and 0.046 quad this year, respectively. The residential sector is expected to consume 0.571 quad of wood next year, down slightly from 0.580 quad this year. Across all sectors, the U.S. is expected to consume 2.123 quad of wood biomass next year, down from 2.164 quad this year. The U.S. is also expected to consume 0.492 quad of waste biomass next year, up from 0.478 quad this year.

More than 2.71 million homes across the U.S. are expected to heat primarily with wood this winter, up 3.9 percent from last year. That number includes 646,000 homes in the Northeast, 696,000 homes in the Midwest, 635,000 homes in the South, and 734,000 homes in the West. In the Northeast, the number of homes heating primarily with wood is expected to be up 6.9 percent, with respective growth rates in the Midwest, South and West forecast to be 6.2 percent, 1.7 percent and 1.1 percent.

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Cleanup of Abandoned Cincinnati Compost Site to Cost $300K

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incinnati, OH – Left with piles of partially composted compost last summer, the city of Cincinnati had little choice but to finish the job, according to a Cincinnati.com article.

Some 80,000 tons of rotting meat and vegetable scraps were left by the commercial composting company, Cincy Compost, which had leased the land from the city. When neighbors complained repeatedly for two years, the city effectively shut down the operation by not renewing the lease.

Larry Falkin, director of Cincinnati’s Office of Environment and Sustainability said the city decided to continue processing the 40,000 cubic yards of unfinished compost material and other waste because it would have been much more expensive to remove the material.

Just this year, the Ohio EPA had issued two violation notices to the company. In April, the agency notified Cincy Compost by letter that it had not filed an annual report. Then in May the EPA notified the business and the city that the compost site was contaminating nearby creeks.

The city installed a sump pump to put the runoff into a collection system, which is then sent to the sewer district for proper disposal.

For a brief time, Cincy Compost was the only commercial compost company in Cincinnati. Falkin said the facility was supposed to take in 20,000 pounds of a waste a year. It opened in July 2012 and was quickly overwhelmed. According to city estimates, four times that much waste came into the site.

The city’s Office of Environmental Services made use of the composted material to re-vegetate parts of the landfill and other cityowned properties.

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12 Soil & Mulch Producer News November / December 2014

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Aspen Food Waste Composting Program Begins

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spen, CO – A newly launched Aspen-area composting program not only will reduce landfill waste, but also promote a unique learning tool to teach kids about sustainability, according to an article on AspenDailyNews.com.

Aspen’s food recycling program is rolling out with training for kitchen employees on how to collect food waste, bear-proof storage containers and infrastructure to turn the waste into compost.

The program being run by the Pitkin County expands on the efforts begun by the city of Aspen in 2011. The solid waste center, restaurants, city administration offices, institutional and commercial facilities all have banded together to reduce food waste going to landfill.

According to Cathy Hall, county solid waste manager, a 2009 study showed that 40 percent of the waste weight in the Pitkin County Landfill was from food. The lion’s share of that waste comes from restaurants. The St. Regis, Sky Hotel, Aspen Club, SkiCo, Aspen/Pitkin County Airport and the county jail are either interested or already onboard with the program, she adds.

According to Cathy Hall, county solid waste manager, an iPad teaching tool will be ready in 2015.

Large-scale food waste programs have been launched in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New York, Seattle, San Francisco and Portland.

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Harvest Garden Pro and EarthKind Set Up Ops in North Carolina

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ooresville, NC – Harvest Power Inc., has selected Mooresville as the headquarters for its Harvest Garden Pro LLC division, CharlotteObserver.com reports.

The company plans to invest about $120,000 over three years in the new location and create 33 jobs to provide better support and product lines to its customers, Mooresville-based Lowe’s and The Home Depot, Wal-Mart and numerous independent garden centers.

Steve Liffers, senior vice president of Harvest Power’s consumer products division, said the company will be up and running quickly and has already set its sights on a robust 2015 season.

Another company relocating to Mooresville is Earth-Kind Inc., a maker of all-natural, nontoxic pest control products. Earth-Kind plans to lease 50,000 square feet of manufacturing space in a former drapery plant and will eventually employ 380 full-time workers. Earth-Kind’s customers include John Deere, Tractor Supply Co., ACE Hardware and Menards.

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WED •THURS • FRI 14 Soil & Mulch Producer News November / December 2014

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hicago, IL – Worm composting, once a suburban activity, is catching on here and elsewhere, according to a ChicagoTribune.com article.

Nature’s Little Recyclers, which houses about 1.2 million worms, and Urban Worm Girl, founded in 2008, which sells worm composting kits, are just two of Chicago’s home-based wriggly startups.

The vermi-preneurs are finding financing via crowdfunding methods, such as Kickstarter, and receiving support from the city. Not that the business ventures are generating huge profits - most are barely breaking even. But for now the proprietors are proud to help “green up” their locales and be a part of a larger movement that may turn profitable in the future. The trend is not only gaining momentum in Chicago; it’s taking shape all across the US and around the world.

“Now that people are focusing on food waste, they’re looking for ways to manage it, and vermicomposting is one of those ways,” said Rhonda Sherman, a county extension specialist at North Carolina State University.

The Chicago worm composters’ customers are mostly homeowners with houseplants and backyard veggie plots, although some are businesses wanting to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. The suits come looking for composting kits to place in their office kitchens. They use the compost for houseplants and rooftop gardens.

Nature’s Little Recyclers has raised more than $5000 through a Kickstarter campaign, which will buy a van, a cardboard shredder and a forklift for doing industrial-scale worm composting.

Large-scale vermicomposting has been taking off in the United Kingdom, as well as parts of Southeast Asia. Fast food giant, McDonald’s, has been using worms to digest food waste from its Hong Kong restaurants since 2007, according Norman Arancon, an assistant professor of horticulture at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Arancon says he has met with Singapore’s government officials about integrating vermicomposting with their solid waste program.

Worms eat about a third of their body weight per day, dining on anything from cardboard to burlap to coffee grounds and crushed eggshells. Compost is made up of worm excretion, or castings, which Arancon says holds valuable nutrients for plants, such as phosphates and ammonium nitrate.

According to a University of Hawaii study, each square foot of a worm composting bin can process about 1 pound of organic waste per week.

Philippa Stanley, Environmental Director of ORM Waste Management, PLC, notes that earthworms in ancient Egypt were considered indispensable to the agricultural economy. Cleopatra supposedly declared the earthworm sacred, and any export of earthworms was subjected to the death penalty.

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register now for environmental connection Environmental Connection co-locating with Geosynthetics Portland OR, USA

February15 -18, 2015 www.ieca.org/conference ieca.org/conference

20 15 International Erosion Control Association REGION ONE

7 Reasons Why You Should Attend Environmental Connection

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his is IECA’s premier educational event for the erosion, sediment control and stormwater industry. Environmental Connection combines intense, full and half day training courses with topic-focused technical sessions and the largest expo of its kind. Environmental Connection 2015 will be a co-located event with the Industrial Fabrics Association International’s Geosynthetics 2015.

Bigger than ever: In 2015, the Environmental Connection Conference will be a co-located event with the Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI). This means you will meet more of the industry’s brightest minds.

Continue your education: Learn from presentations of the latest case studies and topic-focused technical sessions.

Stay credible: Earn Professional Development Hours (PDHs) by attending technical sessions.

Build business relationships: We have numerous networking and social opportunities so you can make connections with future clients or even connect with potential employers/employees.

Stay ahead of the curve: Keep up-to-date in today’s newest technologies in erosion and sediment control products and services at our two-day expo.

Support a cause: Attending conference helps to show your support for IECA, which is a non-profit organization that provides education, resource information and business opportunities for professionals in the erosion and sediment control industry.

Destination Portland: We are bringing the world’s largest soil and water event to Pacific Northwest! Portland, Oregon is IECA’s 2015 conference stop. With abundant outdoor activities, beer and coffee enthusiasm, a fastgrowing food scene, easy public transportation on their light rail system and beautiful topography along the Willamette River, Portland is an ideal spot for conference attendees.

Link: http://www.ieca.org/conference/annual/ec.asp

JOIN US AT THE • World’s largest organics recycling tradeshow • The industry’s only standalone Equipment Demonstration Day • Compost facility, government program managers, suppliers, consultants and researchers Thanks to Our Sponsors!

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WHAT: Annual Conference & Tradeshow Event of the Organics Industry!

WHERE: Renaissance Hotel, Austin TX WHEN: January 20-23, 2015 (3 days of tradeshow & sessions plus a day of field equipment demonstration)

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16 Soil & Mulch Producer News November / December 2014

Soil

Indie Compost Business Owner Questions County-Run Operation

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nondaga County, NY – There’s controversy heating up in the mulch and compost world here, according to a CNYCenteral.com article.

Onondaga County residents pay $15.00 to drop off an unlimited amount of yard waste at a composting facility run by Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency (OCRRA). The fee entitles them to six free yards of compost or mulch.

The program was intended to help divert green waste from landfills, which is a good thing. But selling garden soil amendments at a bargain has made another type of impact, and the agency’s critics see this as a bad thing.

OCRRA’s $15 pricing gives residents a great deal – they’d pay about $125 for six cubic yards of mulch from a commercial supplier. This has one local green waste business owner up in arms and crying foul against the tax-supported, governmentrun green operation.

Last Chance Recycling proprietor, Ian Hunter, recently spent $2 million on a grinding machine to handle brush and other wood materials he collects. Normally, he’d be selling plenty of mulch to pay off his investment. But his revenues are down and he says he simply can’t compete when the county practically gives stuff away.

In fact, an audit by the Onondaga County Comptroller’s office found OCRRA’s expenses were practically three times the amount of its revenues. The agency, which invested $2.4 million in the composting facility, has been using money from its other operations to subsidize the compost program. The Comptroller’s audit turned up a loss of nearly $420,000.

OCRRA defends its low cost composting program, saying it helps keep green waste out of the landfill by making recycling easy and low cost for the public.

“Our fees are based on a wholesale or a public benefit fee use, since we’re here to serve the public. So we do have a lower fee, but we’re not giving it out for free,” an OCRRA official told CNYCentral.

As a result of the audit, OCRRA has promised to end the compost program’s operating losses within 10 years.

.net www.allu

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Mulch Producer NEWS

Tulsa Changes Green Waste Direction

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ulsa, OK – Instead of composting, Tulsa may be sending its green waste to a waste-to-energy burn facility, along with regular trash, according to TulsaWorld.com.

As the city requests bids for trash collection, concerns about separate household and green waste, and financing issues put a large-scale composting facility on hold.

The city’s refuse collection contract covers green waste pick-up; however, without a facility built and ready to accept the waste, the planned composting program is moot, says Tulsa City Council member, Karen Gilbert.

In fact, the investment in building and operating an active composting facility is being questioned.

Under a program started Oct. 1, 2012, the plan was for Tulsa’s green-waste site was to accept green waste from curbside pick-up, compost it, then offer free mulch to the public. But that hasn’t happened, mainly because the city’s refuse collection workers could not readily identify green waste from regular trash. As a result, almost all the green waste ended up at the bioenergy facility.

Gilbert thinks the situation is a frustrating setback in the city’s sustainability efforts. “The initial plan of the new system was to separate the different types of waste,” she says. “So it’s disappointing that we’re not following through with the plan. We can still change the bagging issue without changing the whole system for 8-12 years.”

The city’s trash pick-up contract runs through 2022 with options to continue to 2026. The Tulsa Authority for Recovery of Energy chairman said the city will choose a vendor in December.

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November / December 2014 Soil & Mulch Producer News 17

Product/Equipment Profiles

Organic Recyclers and Composters Improve Profitability With One Versatile Attachment

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LLU Group attachments for organic recyclers and composters, process food waste in a singlestep —screening out contaminants and unwanted materials, reducing material to a uniform size, mixing and placing it into windrows for composting, as well as turning and aerating organic material. These versatile attachments are ideal for pre-processing food waste of all sizes and composition, fitting a variety of applications such as preparing organic material to pump through a digester. The attachments couple easily to an existing wheel loader, excavator, skid steer or backhoe, and allow operations to transport and process food waste in one step.

The D-Series Screener Crusher is the larger of the two series, and has the widest variety of choices for product fragment size, ranging from 0.60-inch to 6-inch (15-mm to 150-mm). The DL Screener Crusher incorporates features from the D-Series, but is designed for compact base machines. The core of the DL Screener Crusher is the unique top screen, where the screening hammers spin between the screen comb. This design ensures the attachment remains clog-free, providing good production and throughput, even with wet materials.

For more information, contact ALLU Group at 800-939-2558, usa@allu.net, or visit www.allu.net.

Bandit Industries Announces Model 2550 Track Stump Grinder

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et on the right track with the new Model 2550 Track stump grinder from Bandit Industries.

The introduction of this machine marks Bandit ’s entry into track-mounted stump grinders in the 40-horsepower category, combining the popularity of the Model 2550XP selfpropelled stump grinder with the versatility and go-anywhere mobility of a track-mounted machine.

Featuring the same 44-horsepower diesel engine and a 20” diameter Revolution cutter wheel from the standard 2550, the Model 2550 Track delivers the all-terrain capabilities and superb flotation found in larger track machines. It’s light weight makes it easy to tow, while the track undercarriage provides exceptional maneuverability All Bandit stump grinders, including the Model 2550 Track, are built with a solid chassis construction using continuous steel welds. The Model 2550 Track features a beltless hydrostatic direct-drive, delivering smooth, direct power to the cutter wheel while reducing maintenance downtime and costs associated with traditional belt drive models. The Revolution cutter wheel comes standard, delivering exceptional cutting power and chip containment for easy clean up.

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ClearSpan Adds Options to HD Building Line Available in 160, 180 & 200’ lengths

Komptech’s New Multistar L3: Rigorous Attention to Detail

learSpan Fabric Structures recently added three different length options to its HD Building solutions.

“We added the three lengths of 160, 180 and 200’ simply due to customer demand,” stated ClearSpan’s Senior Vice President, Matt Niaura. “Having these new profiles in our system will allow for a faster overall process from order to installation.”

The HD Buildings are available in both gable and round style designs and can be mounted as a freestanding structure or affixed to other foundations, such as ponywalls or containers.

HD Buildings are made from triple-galvanized structural steel tubing for the frame and a 12.5 oz., high-density polyethylene (HDPE) rip-stop fabric cover.

Since there are no internal support posts, the building allows for maximum usable space. The fabric cover is available in several colors, and its permeable properties make it extremely energy efficient. The polyethylene material allows the transmission of abundant natural light, significantly cutting costs that would otherwise be needed for supplemental lighting.

The HD buildings start at 25’ wide and cost as little as $7.49 dollars per square foot. End panels and accessories are also available, but are sold separately.

h e n e w Multistar L3 has the same coarse and fine screen deck dimensions as its predecessor, and delivers exactly the same throughput.

However, there is one key difference - the new cartridge design of the screen decks means they can be removed and switched in a very short time. This simple removal makes maintenance, conversion and particle size changes easier, and represents a major increase in the machine’s flexibility, especially in terms of grain size.

Higher flexibility includes improved mobility. On the new L3 the towbar is now on the opposite side, where the oversize fraction is ejected. This frees up the medium grain discharge side, greatly simplifying in-line operation.

Also, the chain drives are now placed opposite the drive motors, so there is no longer any need to remove the motors to replace chains or chain sprockets. Thanks to the slip-on gears and torque support the machine no longer needs clutches, and the motors no longer need to be aligned, making for faster and easier maintenance.

Finally, the new control panel layout is state-of-the-art. Its intuitive menu guidance and easily understood symbols make operation easier and safer.

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For more information, call 866-643-1010 to speak to a knowledgeable Truss Arch Sales Specialist or visit www.clearspan.com.

18 Soil & Mulch Producer News

November / December 2014

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For more information visit www.komptech.com or call 720-890-9090.

Calendar of Events industry related trade shows Western Nursery & Landscape Association Annual Meeting and Trade Show January 3-5, 2015 Kansas City, MO www.wnla.org

US Composting Council 23rd Annual Conference and Trade Show January 20-23, 2015 Austin, TX www.compostingcouncil.org

North Carolina Nursery Landscape Association 2015 Green & Growin’ Show January 5-9, 2015 Greensboro, NC www.ncnla.com

Indiana Green Expo January 21-23, 2015 Indianapolis, IN www.indianagreenexpo.com

Montana Nursery & Landscape Association 2015 Montana Green Expo January 7-8, 2015 Billings, MT www.plantingmontana.com Ohio Nursery & Landscape Association CENTS 2015 January 7-9, 2015 Columbus, OH www.onla.org

Florida Nursery, Growers & Landscape Association Inc TPIE: Tropical Plant Industry Exhibition January 21-23, 2015 Ft Lauderdale, FL www.fngla.org Idaho Nursery & Landscape Association Idaho Horticulture Expo 2015 January 22-23, 2015 Boise, ID www.inlagrow.org

2015 Gulf States Horticultural Expo January 28-30, 2015 Mobile, AL www.gshe.org New England Grows!

February 4-6, 2015 Boston, MA www.newenglandgrows.org

South Carolina Nursery & Landscape Association South Carolina Horticulture Industry Trade Show February 4-6 2015 Myrtle Beach, SC www.scnla.com iLandscape February 5-7, 2015 Schaumburg, IL www.ilandscapeshow.com Environmental Connection Conference International Erosion Control Association February 15-18, 2015 Portland, OR www.ieca.org

ProGreen EXPO January 13-16, 2015 Denver, CO www.progreenexpo.com

West Virginia Nursery & Landscape Association Winter Symposium January 23, 2015 Charleston, WV www.wvnla.org

MANTS 2015 Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show January 14-16, 2015 Baltimore, MD www.mants.com

North Dakota Nursery & Greenhouse Assoc.

Annual Convention & Trade Show January 25-27, 2015 Fargo, ND www.ndnga.com

Northern Green Expo January 14-16, 2015 Minneapolis, MN www.minnesotagreenexpo.com

Great Lakes Trade Exposition January 26-28, 2015 Lansing, Michigan www.glte.org

Pennsylvania Landscape and Nursery Association PANTS15 July 29-30, 2015 Philadelphia, PA www.PANTSHOW.com

Texas Nursery and Landscape Association Winter Showcase January 15-18, 2015 Dallas, TX www.tnlaonline.org

Utah Green Industry Conference & Trade Show January 27-28, 2015 Sandy, UT www.utahgreen.org

Oregon Association of Nurseries 2015 Farwest Trade Show August 27-29, 2015 Portland, OR www.farwestshow.com

Southern Nursery Association SNA 2015 July 21-23, 2015 Atlanta, GA www.sna.org

EQUIPMENT PRODUCT SHOWCASE www.united-rotary.com/engineered engineered@united-rotary.com

www.united-rotary.com/engineered engineered@united-rotary.com

www.hclmachineworks.com casey@unwiredbb.com

Sell your used equipment with a classified ad in Soil & Mulch Producerinfo@ecoverseindustries.com News.

For more information, call 440-257-6453.

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Delaware Casino Takes Green Seriously

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over, DE – Dover Downs Hotel and Casino, which began cutting-edge, in-room recycling program for guests in 2013, hosted the first Mid-Atlantic Green Hospitality Conference in September, a NewsWorks.org article reports.

The conference was held in partnership with Hospitality Green, a New York-based consulting firm that specializes in providing operational and environmental consulting services to the hotel industry.

Dover Downs’ hotel recycling diverts at least a ton of waste per day from the state’s landfills and saves the hotel an additional $135/ day in tipping fees, company officials say. The racetrack also generates recyclables. Wood chips and straw from the racehorse stalls and grass clippings, manure and bedding hay are recycled onsite or donated to local farms for making fertilizer.

“When we first embarked on our Go Green initiative, we were recycling about 10 percent of our waste output, Dover Downs CEO, Ed Sutor, says.

Sutor set a companywide goal of 30 percent which was met quickly through the installation of recycle receptacles in every department and a grading system that keeps managers on their toes. Now recycled waste hovers around 60 percent, according to Sutor.

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Omaha Composting Program Underway

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maha, NE – Part of an old landfill here is the location for a pilot program that turns restaurant food waste into compost, reports KETV.com.

The program is a venture between Douglas County Environmental Services, We Compost, a small vermiculture business and No More Empty Pots, a local nonprofit.

We Compost turns the food scraps into compost, or more accurately, its earthworms do.

The nonprofit, No More Empty Pots, runs and oversees the operation. This includes pick-up and delivery, and gathering data on the costs and benefits of the pilot program. The information is being compiled into a study to submit to the county planning board.

So far, the program has been successful, thanks in large part to the worms, which have produced 10,000 pounds of compost in just a little over a month. The compost is used by urban farms, such as Big Muddy Urban Farm, whose owner is happy to have an ongoing supply.

One local restaurant, Kitchen Table, has contributed some 4,000 pounds of food waste, and Google’s data center in Council Bluffs has sent over 10,000 pounds to the composting site.

With planning board approval, the composting partners envision expanding their composting effort to a wider area and supplying compost to about 200 community gardens.

November / December 2014

Abengoa to Build World’s Largest Biomass Power Plant in Belgium

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hent, Belgium – Belgian Eco Energy (Bee) has selected the Spanish company, Abengoa, to build a 215MW biomass power plant at the port of Ghent in Belgium, according to a BioenergyCrops.com article.

Abengoa, an international company that offers sustainability solutions, will be responsible for the engineering, design and construction of the plant. The company has built biomass plants in Europe, Latin America and the United States.

Although the government of Flanders has recently abolished new biomass projects, Bee Power Gent is one of three plants in Belgium that has been approved to generate electricity under old rules. The two other plants have been converted from coal-burning to wood-pellet burning.

The total construction cost of the project is expected to top 315 million euro and Abengoa expects to hire about 1000 workers during the building process. Biomass feedstock will consist of wood chips and agro-residues.

A system called “district heating” delivers approximately 100 MW of thermal energy to industries and households in the city of Ghent.

Bee Power Gent should become operational at the end of 2017.

Soil

American Colors Hires New Salesman for AgriCoatings

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griCoatings is proud to announce the hiring of Andrew Massey. Andrew is a graduate of the University of Tennessee with a Major in English Literature and a Minor in Biology. Andrew has 20 years of sales experience, the majority of which is in chemical sales. His primary focus will be sales of AgriCoatings products.

AgriCoatings is a division of American Colors, Inc. which was founded in 1975 in Sandusky, Ohio. American Colors has locations in Sandusky, OH, Lebanon, TN, Longwood, FL and Shanghai, China.

Rotochopper Expanding into 2015

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otochopper, Inc. recently completed an 8,400 sq ft factory expansion, which includes a new shipping and receiving area, paint preparation bay, and parts warehouse. “When our customers invest in Rotochopper grinding equipment, we have to continue to invest in them,” states John Babcock, Rotochopper president. “This new warehouse is just one small, practical way we are planning ahead to maintain our commitment to customer uptime.”

The enhanced efficiency of the new shipping and receiving area is intended in part to accommodate the diversified needs of a growing customer base. “Compared to just five years ago, there is a noticeable increase in the variety of engines and electric motors we use, to name one example of the increasing diversification of our business” Rotochopper Sales Manager Monte Hight observes. “We are always looking at new strategies to streamline our inventory control.” In addition to the completed factory addition, Rotochopper also acquired land to accommodate future expansion.

Following completion of the expansion, Rotochopper has begun preparing the groundwork for additional inventory storage and future construction.

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Global Forest Industry Shows Improvement

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russels, Belgium – According to the latest global forestry figures reported on Fordaq.com, higher sawlog prices and a flurry of trade activity made 2014 a mostly optimistic year.

The Global Sawlog Price Index (GSPI), which includes 20 regions around the world, posted a three-year high of $89.93/m3. Prices, in US dollar terms, were generally up in North America, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Oceania, although they slid somewhat in Western Europe.

European log import volumes hit their highest levels since 2008, while log exports rose to a ten-year high.

Pulpwood, according to the Softwood and Hardwood Fiber Price Indices, was up slightly over the first quarter of 2014 in the Northwestern region of the U.S., Eastern Western Canada, Brazil, Australia, France and New Zealand.

Lumber production declined in the Southern U.S. and British Columbia, but U.S. lumber prices actually increased since the beginning of 2014, surpassing 2013 figures. Overall, lumber export volumes picked up, with some running almost 10% higher this year than the same period in 2013. Egypt, the UK, France and Algeria accounted for the biggest buyers.

Germany’s softwood exports increased. The country also imports large volumes of lumber and it was the world’s sixth largest importer in 2013.

In Japan, the demand for lumber eased down by 4.5% last spring, but then climbed slightly higher in June. As for China, this year’s lumber importation volumes moved upwards, albeit somewhat erratically.

Pellet exports from North America to Europe slowed somewhat, compared to the past few years. British Columbia is shipping more pellets to Japan and South Korea and less to Europe. Meanwhile, pellet prices fell in Europe as winter ended and the German and Austrian prices came down about 10% from the 1Q/14 to their lowest level in more than a year.

hogzilla@cwmill.com www.cwmill.com

www.hogzilla.com November / December 2014 Soil & Mulch Producer News 21

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New England Leads Nation in Food Waste Recovery, Four States On Board Continued from page 3 digestion facilities. There are now 35 composting facilities and four anaerobic digestion plants operational, and two more to soon come online.

There are also 10 livestock feed operations in the state.

Compared to the Bay State’s tremendous capacity for the diversion of food waste, its tiny neighbor Rhode Island has little room for food waste disposal. With a landmass of only 1,045 square miles, the smallest state in the Union, with the second densest population, only has one large landfill for general trash disposal as well as composting, and 17 small, on-farm composting facilities of which three accept food scraps. Only one facility, Earth Care Farm, in Charleston is the only commercial composting site.

Only municipal waste can be sent to the Central Landfill in Johnson, no commercial waste and no food waste.

Despite the acute lack of facilities to process food waste, the state has forged ahead with legislation to ban the dumping of food. Going into effect in January 2016, the law mandates that supermarkets, food wholesalers, food makers, conference centers, banquet halls, restaurants, prisons, corporations, religious institutions, hospitals, casinos and military bases that produce more than 104 tons of organics yearly send their waste to a compost facility, farm, or anaerobic digester.

However, these organizations will be exempt from the law unless they are within 15 miles of such a facility, according to Laurie Grandchamp, Supervising Engineer, Rhode Island Office of Waste Management.

Grandchamp notes that the state has had several anaerobic digestion facilities show interest in opening facilities in Rhode Island. However, to date no final deals have been made.

“We don’t have enough capacity right now to handle the food waste that will be coming in 2016. But hopefully, more facilities will open between now and then,” Grandchamp explains.

According to Sarah Kite-Reeves, Director of Recycling Services at Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, the quasi public entity which operates the Central Landfill, no one really knows how much additional organics will enter the waste stream once the food scrap ban goes into effect.

“I do know that as of this moment our landfill does not accept food waste for composting, only yard waste. Since we compost with windrows, it’s hard to use food waste because of the odor,” she explains.

She adds that about 800,000 tons of general trash is brought to the Central Landfill yearly and estimates another 1.1-1.2 million tons are hauled out-of-state.

The Director is, however, very hopeful that more companies will seek out Rhode Island to open compost and anaerobic digestion facilities.

“No one knows for sure how much food waste will be generated by this legislation. But I am sure that the law will become a catalyst for the construction of digesters because the law guarantees feedstock for these units. And in order to secure construction financing, a reliable supply of feedstock is necessary,” she notes.

Furthermore, even with a generous supply of fuel for the digesters, there is another factor in building these plants – the cost of electricity.

Kite-Reeves points out the in the Northeast, the cost of electricity has been inching downwards due to the fact that most power produced in that region is from natural gas, not coal.

“Falling electric prices effect the decision to build a digester. If we were to consider this at the Central Landfill, we would have to do a cost benefit analysis before committing to this capital expenditure,” she explains.

Because of its diminutive size yet important location, Rhode Island land prices are astronomical, making space for food waste processing facilities an expensive proposition. She notes that this land cost situation comes into play when deciding to build an anaerobic digester or a compost facility.

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H ow e v e r, K i t e - Re eve s is optimistic that the infrastructure to support a vigorous food waste recycling program will be in place over the next several years, predicting, “Capitalism will take its roots here.”

Although the most rural and the least populated of the four New England states enacting food waste laws, Vermont has forged ahead with legislation that is expected to bring more private investment in anaerobic digestion plants and composting facilities.

Department of Environmental Conservation Environmental Analyst John Kelly, says his state’s law developed so as to allow “a hauling infrastructure to be built.”

He explains the food waste rules are part of a larger, comprehensive law called the Universal Recycling Law. Going into effect in July 2015, the law will ban from the landfill recyclables such as glass bottles and jars; steel and aluminum cans; aluminum foil and plates; plastic containers, jars, and bottles; corrugated paper; white and mixed paper; as well as newspaper, magazines, paper mail, box board and paper bags. Leaf and yard debris and clean wood waste will be banned by July 2016 and food scraps by July 2017.

Kelly notes Vermont’s law goes far by requiring curbside collection under the same timeline. For the commercial food scrap diversion, by this past July, food scrap generators of more than 104 tons a year had to divert waste if they were within 20 miles of a certified facility. By July 2015 the rule will apply to generators of more than 52 tons; by July 2016 generators of over 26 tons; by July 2017 for generators of more than 18 tons. And by 2020, all food scraps, including those from households must be diverted with no exemption for distance.

He further explains that Vermont provides incentives to reduce waste by requiring municipalities to implement variable rate pricing or Pat As You Throw, for materials collected from residential customers based on volume or weight, by July 2015. Haulers will also be required to utilize a variable rate pricing system.

Waste diversion rates in Vermont have stagnated between 30 to over 36 percent over the past 10 years. This is become even more critical because, according to Kelly, one of the state’s two landfills is nearing its capacity.

Because of the looming waste crunch, Kelly is very optimistic that more composting and anaerobic digesters will flock to the state.

“We already have 10 haulers as well as a dozen small to medium size and one large compost facility. We also have 17 on-farm anaerobic digesters who use the gas for energy and heat production. Vermont is a big dairy state and has a lot of manure to process. This makes it easier for food waste diversion,” Kelly notes.

Kelly said a recent statewide study shows that 2022 there will be 44,000 tons of food scraps to be processed.

“Since our on-site digesters can already process 50,000 tons, we should be able to handle the volume”, he points out.

Although all four New England states have passed different laws to address unique situations in their jurisdiction, all four have recognized the need to deal with a growing issue before it gets out of hand.

“The enacting of wood waste bans is a win, win, win, win, win, win situation for Massachusetts, as well as the country,” Cash says.

And in all four states, the food legislation is also affecting public opinion and public action.

“Already there is an attitude about food waste, not just in businesses but in households as well. It’s a long-term process. Government regs will set the standards, and private industry will step up to the plate,” adds Cash.

www.rotochopper.com

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VOL. VIII NO. 6

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Inside This Issue New England Leads Nation in Food Waste Recovery, Four States On Board PAGE 1

Replacing the Environmental Protection Agency – A Constructive Approach PAGE 4 New Railway Expected to Encourage Pellet Market in Mississippi PAGE 8 Delaware Compost Facility to Close PAGE 10 Aspen Food Waste Composting Program Begins PAGE 13 Indie Compost Business Owner Questions County-Run Operation PAGE 17 Global Forest Industry Shows Improvement PAGE 21

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