From BioCycle Magazine
June 1999, Page 26

PROSPEROUS PARTNERSHIP

UNIVERSITY AND COMPANY TEAM UP FOR COMPOSTING AND RECYCLING
Campus staff and a management company join forces to increase diversion at New Mexico State University.

Dave Block

Sodexho Marriott Services is a food and facilities management company that operates in the corporate, health care and education markets. Its expertise is rooted in areas such as meals, landscaping, housekeeping, plant operations, etc. But for the past several years, the company has teamed up with New Mexico State University (NMSU) to run a campus composting and recycling program that utilizes advantages of both the corporate and collegiate worlds. Started in July, 1994, the cooperative solid waste management program — called “Aggie Recycling” — achieved a 25 percent diversion rate within three years, made 500 tons of yard trimmings compost and diverted 2,123 tons of recyclable materials. The teamwork also earned Aggie Recycling an EPA Environmental Excellence Award in Recycling in November, 1998.

Before the inception of Aggie Recycling, the university relied on volunteers for collecting recyclables generated by its 21,250 students, faculty and staff. In 1993, it asked Kerry Krumsiek — who was running a countywide recycling program elsewhere in the state — to write a grant proposal for purchase of recycling equipment. After funding was approved, NMSU offered him the position of campus solid waste/recycling manager. “The university realized it already had landscape management under contract with Marriott, so the idea was to add my position as manager to the contract,” explains Krumsiek, who began in the summer of 1994. “I think it’s turned out to be quite an enhancement. You get the best of each side and its resources.”

TWICE THE ADVANTAGE

Working within Marriott, Krumsiek can make decisions without going through the formal process used by the university departments. Sales of recyclables can be made to salvagers or directly to vendors. “We have our own vendor relationships and negotiate prices nationwide, which is helpful,” he says. “If I want to purchase something, I can go through the university purchase order system or through a company account. That’s been a way of speeding up the process.” He also draws heavily upon the assistance of four Marriott personnel, including unit manager Pat Montoya. He credits their teamwork as the key to the program’s success.

On the university side, Krumsiek has the advantage of working in a physical plant department with 30 different shops and specialties, such as mechanics, carpenters, painters, computer support, etc. “I also have a heavy equipment pool,” he notes. “If I need a three-yard loader, I can sign out for it. Having that kind of equipment here makes it easy. And if I need a trencher that they don’t have, I can use a Sodexho Marriott account. I don’t have to go out looking for contractors.” In addition, the NMSU student government has decided to fund a student coordinator position to serve as a liaison, mobilize recycling volunteers and promote the program.

The university and the company shared the $80,000 cost of building the NMSU recycling facility, which was finished in the summer of 1996. Sodexho Marriott has reinvested revenues from program savings and sale of recyclables back into Aggie Recycling. The company and university also split the cost of a Bobcat loader, with Marriott paying over half.

Given this partnership, Krumsiek considers himself “a seed that got dropped in fertile ground.” He sees the trend on campuses going away from grassroots recycling programs run by student volunteers and toward a more professional management concept. “There’s a continuity in this management process, whereas in a student-driven approach, a program can be hurt when leaders graduate,” he says. “I think there’s potential for other institutions to form the type of partnership we have here.” Krumsiek has developed a solid waste management plan for another Marriott client, Clemson University, and the company is receiving similar requests from other customers in the U.S.

RECYCLING PROGRAM

Aggie Recycling started with upgrading paper and cardboard recovery, which had been organized by volunteers. About $6,000 worth of containers were purchased and placed throughout campus for source separation of cardboard and four categories of paper: newspaper; magazines, books and catalogs; white paper; and mixed paper. Desk-side containers were supplied for transfer of paper to central 40-gallon Rubbermaid containers on castors. There are 35 to 40 major pick up points for paper and six for cardboard on campus. “We put bins in areas with high volumes of paper, which we discovered are generated not by students, but by staff — the registrar’s office, computer center, administrative building, etc.,” says Krumsiek.

Those using the buildings are responsible for recycling. “We also get some assistance from the custodial department as voluntary help — recycling’s not in their job description,” he notes. “They’ll empty small containers into the large ones, and in some cases move those containers to the curb. The custodial department has been delivering recyclables to us, as well as the labor shop. If there’s a major purging of ten years of records, the labor shop is hired by a department to remove the paper, and the crew will just drop it off at the recycling center.”

Recycled paper collection has increased from the 5,000-6,000 pounds/month collected by the volunteer program to about 16 tons every three weeks. The average pick up frequency for a building is weekly. “We have two choices,” says Krumsiek. “We can invest in more containers to allow for a longer time between pick ups, or we can increase frequency. What we’ve found is that buildings are not constructed with recycling in mind, so we have to sneak in containers where we can. We wish we could put everyone on a once/week schedule, but at this point, we’re going with fewer containers and more frequent pick ups.”

Drivers who collect used paper estimate the weight in each load to provide recycling data for each building. Workers roll the Rubbermaid containers onto the hydraulic lift gate of the collection truck. Paper is taken off the vehicle at the recycling center and placed in gaylord containers. The boxes are hydraulically tipped onto a sorting conveyor that connects with an inclined feeding conveyor for the horizontal baler. “Because we have a small facility — 3,500 square feet — we don’t have the luxury of allowing paper to accumulate,” says Krumsiek. “We’ll make 24 bales of paper for a truck backed up to our loading dock. Then it goes to an intermediate processor 45 miles away in El Paso.”

Krumsiek’s marketing approach has stressed continuity since his days selling recycled paper for the county. “We could spot market, which has some advantages,” he says. “But in the long haul, it’s better to cultivate a good vendor relationship.”

A designated area in the physical plant yard allows for dropoff of steel, copper, brass, aluminum, stainless steel, CPU’s, motors and cast iron. In addition, construction site metal (and cardboard) from campus capital projects, as well as outdated materials from the NMSU welding shop and academic departments, are picked up at no charge. Large loads are hauled by Aggie Recycling staff, while a salvager is brought in for smaller amounts. Although the program accepts aluminum cans, most vending machines recently switched to plastic bottles. “We don’t collect plastic or glass because we have nowhere to go with it,” Krumsiek explains. “We do accept styrofoam packing that we take to a manufacturer in town.”

ORGANIC FEEDSTOCKS

Although preparations began in the summer of 1995, composting didn’t reach a full-scale level until 1997. A site was developed to compost campus organics and support research projects conducted by the Waste-management Education Research Consortium (see sidebar). One acre is dedicated to feedstock storage and another to processing.

Feedstocks include 200 tons/year of manure from the more than 300 head of sheep, pigs, horses and cows housed on campus. NMSU’s agricultural department stockpiles the material and gives it to the compost site on an irregular basis. The manure is cured for at least a full season when it is received, which lowers the nitrogen content, but neutralizes odors and vector attraction.

Previously, yard trimmings from the 475-acre university grounds were landfilled. Now the compost program takes leaves in the fall, freshly cut grass in the summer and thatch in the winter, as well as brush for aeration in the pile mass. Separate dropoff areas are designated for leaves, grass, soil, logs, refuse, etc. Tree trimmings are run through a small tub grinder measuring eight feet in diameter.

Last August, NMSU began a pilot food residuals composting project, taking 2,000 to 3,000 pounds/month of cafeteria prep waste. Instead of sending them down the drain, kitchen staff put food residuals in 40-gallon yellow Rubbermaid containers. Each weekday, two to three containers are filled, rolled out back and picked up. A walk-in refrigerator is available to store spoiled food on weekends if necessary. The containers are manually tipped into a windrow and incorporated into the other feedstocks with a front-end loader.

“We’ve been aware from the beginning that odor and vector attraction are two key public issues,” says Krumsiek. “Because we’re right on campus, we don’t have a large buffer. We’re a little past the proof of concept stage, but we’re still concerned. I might put 300 pounds of food waste in a windrow with two tons of other compostables.”

COMPOSTING PROCESS

Windrows are formed about 10 feet wide, six feet high and 70 feet long. Composting is done directly on the desert soil, a sandy loam with plentiful rocks and no topsoil. When handling the material, workers try to leave a couple inches of organics at the bottom to avoid picking up stones. They also have to contend with occasional 30 mph winds that blow dust and sand around the site.

When labor is available, turning (with the loader) and watering are done every ten days. The piles are brought up to about 50 percent moisture. “We started off with watering via gravity flow from a tank, but that was very slow,” Krumsiek recalls. “Then we brought water to the site by tapping a main underneath it and used a garden hose. That was a big improvement, but still slow. Now we have a system of two-inch PVC pipe and an inch-and-a-half hose. With more volume, we can go so much faster.” Since the average annual rainfall is only six inches, leachate is not an issue.

When piles can be turned on schedule, active composting lasts about ten to 12 weeks. The compost is set aside for a few months to cure, although the finished product often sits much longer before being used. It is put through a half-inch mesh on a vibrating screen that cost $4,000 to fabricate in-house.

The compost is applied to landscaping and turf projects on campus. “The native soil is not rich in organic material,” says Krumsiek. “Instead of two percent organic matter, it’s about two hundredths of a percent.” Topdressing has produced the best results, increasing germination rates. Another method has been to put compost into aeration holes created by plugs in the soil. For turf application, two to five tons/acre of compost are used. “If we’re going into a new area, sometimes we mix compost with the soil at a 1:4 rate,” adds Krumsiek.