Soil & Mulch Producer News Sep/Oct2010

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Vol. IV No. 5

September  / October 2010

Serving Soil, Mulch, Compost, & Biofuel Professionals

NEWS

Attention Readers !

Are you looking for Products, Equipment or Services for your business? If so, please check out these leading companies advertised in this issue:

Bagging Systems

Amadas Industries – pg 5 Hamer LLC – pg 11 Premier Tech Chronos – pg 14 Rethceif Packaging – pg 9

Compost, Mulch & Wood Waste For Sale Giorgi Mushroom – pg 21 Litco International – pg 12 The Pallet Shop – pg 20

Compostex – pg 4

Food Waste Tops Menu for Compost Facilities

Compost Turners

By P.J. Heller

Compost Mixers & Spreaders Roto-Mix LLC – pg 20

Compost Cover

HCL Machine Works – pg 19 Turn and Screen – pg 16

Mulch Coloring Equip/ Colorants Amerimulch – pg 8 Colorbiotics – pg 7 TH Glennon – pg 15

Plastic Removal System Airlift Separator – pg 13

Shredders, Grinders, Chippers & Screening Systems Allu Group Inc – pg 13 Doppstadt – pg 17 Earth Saver Equipment – pg 8 Hogzilla – pg 19 Morbark Inc. – pg 2 Orbit Screens – pg 6 Peterson – pg 18 Powerscreen Midwest – pg 21 Rayco Mfg – pg 12 REMU – pg 20 (back cover) Screen USA – pg 20 Universal Equip. Mfg. – pg 19 Vermeer/Wildcat – pg 23 West Salem Machinery – pg 4

Transport Trailers Travis Trailers – pg 16 Trinity Trailer Mfg – pg 10

W

hen it comes to operating a successful composting business, it takes more than just knowing about the meat and potatoes of the operation. It also takes knowing about pasta, fish, veggies, fruits and other foodstuffs. That’s because of the growing demand on the part of cities and counties to divert food waste to composting facilities rather than to rapidly filling landfills. Food waste is the thirdlargest waste stream after paper and yard waste, accounting for about 15 percent of the total municipal solid waste stream. Of the 32 million tons of food waste generated annually, only about three percent is recovered and recycled, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “There’s a tremendous opportunity there in terms of managing that waste stream,” says Loren Martin, general manager of Terra-Grow, Inc., in Lancaster County, Pa. Composting food waste not only keeps the material out of landfills and reduces greenhouse gases, but can slash costs to businesses for landfill tipping fees. And the end result is highquality compost that can in some cases be sold by the same food waste generators to be put back into the earth.

“The use of recycled food waste (compost) has a myriad of environmental benefits such as improving soil health and structure, increasing drought resistance, as well as reducing, and even eliminating, the need for supplemental water, fertilizers and pesticides,” the EPA says. “Think of it as ‘feeding the soil.’” Nelson Widell couldn’t agree more. “I prefer to call our (composting) operation a ‘soil manufacturing plant’ because that’s what we’re doing,” says Widell, a partner in the Peninsula Composting Group which manages the Organic Recycling Center in Wilmington, Del. “We’re making high-grade organic soils. It just so happens that our manufactured soils are considered waste by some people. To the microorganisms and mother nature, it’s food. And it’s the natural cycle.” Organic Recycling is among a growing number of companies nationwide that are now taking in food scraps along with such things as yard waste, wood and animal manure to produce compost. Terra-Grow manages both Oregon Dairy Organics and Graywood Farms, two Pennsylvania-based facilities known primarily for composting ag waste. They take in a combined Continued on page 3


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