Stuff in a Pile
Composting is one of those modest miracles in a confusing world. By collecting the things we are done with—manure, food waste, yard clippings, and other organic refuse —we can rebuild and improve the stuff we began with, the soil.
On-farm composting of waste generated on the farm is something many farmers do, but a recent Northeast SARE project in western Massachusetts explored the economics of farmers developing relationships with waste haulers and accepting compostable commercial waste brought in from area restaurants, schools, grocery stores, and municipalities. The project showed that composting material from off the farm can both reduce the waste stream and enhance the incomes of participants. The project also indicated that each farm must determine its individual capacity for accepting off-farm waste—composting can work better on some farms than on others.
The Center for Ecological Technology (CET) project focused on developing a market-based infrastructure that served the interests of everyone involved—things that make money do have a way of catching on. With SARE support, CET spent about three and a half years developing partnerships among waste haulers, farmers, and waste generators, and one result has been that, to date, about 22,000 tons of material have been removed from the conventional waste stream and composted on seven area farms. CET estimates that the project has reduced greenhouse gasses by 5700 metric tons carbon equivalent, or about the same reduction gotten from 20,000 trees over 40 years.
Best of all, CET learned that composting can be a viable revenue source for farms, both in tipping fees and in sales of the final product, especially when the composting component fits in well with the farm operation already in place. Composting takes time, equipment, and responsiveness—CET noted in their report that the farmer must be able to accept material year round, attend to it promptly when it arrives, and be vigilant about keeping out contamination. Other issues are the visual impacts of composting on near neighbors or from the road, the need to keep compost as free as possible from contaminants and plastics, and the variation from farm to farm in compost quality, often because the composition of the compost was out of balance or not adequately screened. Fine screening, at 5/16" or 1/2", improved the market value of the completed compost from $2 per yard for use in land reclamation to $25 to $30 per yard for retail sales.
The farmer makes money through tipping fees and the resale of finished compost, but there is also money to be saved through lower hauling costs. CET learned that this proved especially true with larger institutions and businesses; even when the costs of sorting and extra containers were accounted for, the cumulative savings in composting made it economically attractive. Smaller establishments were not able to save as much because their waste stream was simply too modest to trigger large benefits, but many of these businesses participated anyway because they were environmentally conscious and were willing to try composting as long as their costs didn’t actually go up. In all, CET brought more than 70 businesses into the compost partnership, supported 25 on-farm composting start-ups, and facilitated the work of six haulers, supporting their need to handle organic waste efficiently.
The project offers a model on how the partnerships developed, and the CET report includes samples of spreadsheets, contracts, communications materials, equipment surveys, and a page of useful resources.
A copy of CET’s 80-page report, "Building a Market-Based System of Farm Composting of Commercial Food Waste," is available at no cost; e-mail your request to the EPA Region 1 RCRA Resource Library at friedman.fred@epa.gov. The report is also available free on the Web in PDF format; point your browser to http://www.cetonline.org. The Northeast SARE project number is LNE96-76.
Books on Composting
The Natural Resource, Agriculture, and Engineering Service, or NRAES, offers several titles on composting of interest to farmers and gardeners. Titles include:
- The Field Guide to On-Farm Composting. 128 pages; $14.
- On-Farm Composting Handbook. 186 pages; $25.
- Composting to Reduce the Waste Stream: A Guide to Small-Scale Food and Yard Waste Composting. 44 pages; $8.
To purchase books from NRAES you can call them at 607/255-7654, send e-mail to nraes@cornell.edu, or browse their online book catalog at http://www.nraes.org.
Learning Opportunities
International Compost School at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. This certification program offers classroom work, hands-on labs, and field trips as part of the curriculum. Five days, $425. To learn more, contact Neal Hallee at 207/581-2722; his e-mail address is nhallee@umext.maine.edu. Limited enrollment; the next session runs from October 23 through October 27.
Selected Projects
Northeast SARE has funded a number of compost projects over the years. Selected projects include:
- ANE92-10 Farmer-to-Farmer Compost Exchange Project, Connecticut.
- FNE94-48 Innovative Uses of Leaf Compost for the Modern Farmer/Grower. Connecticut.
- LNE96-71 Compost Laboratory Education Project, Maine.
For more compost projects, search the SARE database at www.sare.org.
|
