July 2004 :: BioCycle, Advancing Composting, Organics Recycling & Renewable Energy

July 2004

BRINGING SUSTAINABILITY TO LOS ANGELES

BioCycle July 2004, Vol. 45, No. 7, p. 29

An organization called TreePeople offers a strategy to recharge groundwater, prevent runoff to the ocean, and improve the quality of life for California residents.

Robert Feinbuam

LOS ANGELES is not the city that comes to mind when one thinks of sustainability. L.A. is the prototype for America’s obsession with that least sustainable of all contraptions — the internal combustion engine. The city is built on a desert and has to import nearly all of its water from Northern California and from the Colorado River. Buildings are constructed in areas where reason would suggest they have no place. Nature has been submerged under a tide of asphalt — nearly three-quarters of the city is covered with it. In fact, ecologists contend that the Los Angeles basin now has over 50 times the population the area was meant to support.

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BIOSOLIDS COMPOSTING FOR CITIES WITH UNDER 10,000 POPULATION

BioCycle July 2004, Vol. 45, No. 7, p. 24

Lenoir City, Tennessee develops simple method for achieving Class A biosolids product that avoids a "hefty annual landfill charge."

M.L. Blackburn

THE COMMUNITY of Lenoir City, Tennessee (pop. 6,719) is nestled in a valley bordered by the Great Smoky Mountains on the east and the Cumberland Plateau on the west. The once mighty Tennessee and Little Tennessee Rivers (now harnessed by TVA dams) converge with their banks bordering the city.

The wastewater treatment plant serving Lenoir City began operation in 1969. It

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BioCycle World

BioCycle July 2004, Vol. 45, No. 7, p. 6

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REUSING FOUNDRY SAND IN AGRICULTURAL APPLICATIONS
Foundries in North America generate between nine and 13 million tons of sand that is considered to be excess and is no longer used in the mold making process, writes Billie J. Lindsay of Ohio State University’s School of Natural Resources in a literature review, "Agricultural Reuse of Foundry Sand." According to criteria set by the U.S. EPA industrial waste division, she notes, only a small percentage of the excess sand is characterized as hazardous, with the majority qualifying as nonhazardous industrial waste. Only one million tons of the material are said to be beneficially reused outside of the foundry industry.

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Reader’s Q & A

BioCycle July 2004, Vol. 45, No. 7, p. 14

USING COMPOST/DIGESTATE TO STABILIZE MINE SPOILS AND PREVENT OXIDATION

Q: "Can the addition of compost/digestate as a mine spoil cover stabilize pH and redox and so prevent oxidation of pyrites? What is the hard evidence for redox and pH effects of compost on the spoil?" That question comes from a BioCycle reader with an environmental technology company in the United Kingdom.

A: The following responses to the question about utilizing compost/digestate as a mine spoil cover were received from researchers across North America. Our thanks to Richard Stehouwer of Penn State University; Sally Brown of the University of Washington; Charles Henry of the University of Washington; Bo Ge and Daryl McCartney of the University of Alberta for their comments and analysis:

Richard Stehouwer, Environmental Soil Science, Penn State University
I have conducted a number of experiments using compost as an amendment for mine spoils. The added organic matter helps to buffer pH, but does not increase pH much unless the compost itself is quite alkaline. Actual pH change would depend on the acidity of the spoil material and alkalinity of the compost. The organic matter in compost definitely decreases phytotoxicity — presumably by complexing Aluminum (Al) and Iron (Fe) and thereby decreasing activity of free

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Regional Roundup

BioCycle July 2004, Vol. 45, No. 7, p. 18

Bellevue, Washington
NEW RECYCLING SERVICES, INCLUDING FOOD SCRAPS COLLECTION,
WILL REDUCE COSTS TO RESIDENTS
On June 28th, many new items began to be recycled by single-family, multifamily and commercial customers under a solid waste contract that is expected to save Bellevue residents $23.5 million over the next ten years. "The contract gives customers more choices in service and greater opportunities to save time and money," explains Damon Diessner of the city’s Utilities Department. Garbage bills are based on size and number of trash containers set out. The three recycling bins used for the last 15 years are being replaced with one 96-gallon blue cart.
Based on the new contract with Rabanco, single-family households can recycle small appliances and electronics (TVs, VCRs, cell phones, computers, etc.). Single family and multifamily customers can include usable clothing and linens for pick up, as well as aluminum trays, plastic film and grocery bags.

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SAVING MILLIONS IN LANDFILLING COSTS

BioCycle July 2004, Vol. 45, No. 7, p. 22

New York state community uses proven and innovative technologies to capture source separation benefits for its solid wastes.

Ralph J. Gall, Leonard Fiegl, Jeffrey Burroughs and Ian Miller

THE TOWN of Amherst — the largest suburb in Western New York with an approximate population of 117,000 — has taken significant steps to reduce solid waste volume going to landfills for disposal. The steps included a spectrum of proven and new technologies from recycling and yard trimmings composting to heat processing of biosolids. Treatment and processing options, coupled with community education to boost source separation, have led to significant cost savings. Amherst typically saves $2 to $2.5 million per year in avoided tipping fees.

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COMPOST SCORES HIGH ON GOLF COURSE

BioCycle July 2004, Vol. 45, No. 7, p. 52

Country club in Illinois uses blend of yard trimmings and biosolids compost on its golf course finding positive results and improving turf ecology.

Dan Dinelli

THE GOLF COURSE at the North Shore Country Club in Glenview, Illinois benefits greatly from applications of compost. As the superintendent of the country club, I first became interested in applying compost as a soil amendment after reading research indicating its many soil benefits. For example, investigations by such persons as Michael Boehm of Ohio State University and Eric Nelson of Cornell University showed the impact of applying high-quality compost on supplying nutrients, adding a diversity of organisms, plus promoting disease suppression. Yet because compost is not widely used on golf courses, I wanted to participate in further research here at North Shore.

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COLLECTION AND DIVERSION OF FOOD RESIDUALS IN SOUTHWEST FLORIDA

BioCycle July 2004, Vol. 45, No. 7, p. 32

Five-month project yields data on environmental impacts, diversion, contamination, compostable feedstocks, and costs from trials at grocery stores, restaurants, hospitals and produce distributors.

Cory Jamieson, Jesse White, Monica Ozores-Hampton, Jean Nutter and Bernadette Thavarajah

SARASOTA COUNTY conducted a food residuals diversion, collection and composting project in cooperation with local businesses and institutions to analyze the feasibility of source separation in Southwest Florida. The pilot was done under a Florida Department of Environmental Protection Innovative Recycling Grant. "Sarasota County is progressive enough to experiment with less developed segments of the waste stream," says Jean Nutter, the county’s project manager. Tipping fees of over $65/ton also helped to stimulate the validity of the recycling project.

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APPLYING COMPOST IN MAINSTREAM AGRICULTURE

BioCycle July 2004, Vol. 45, No. 7, p. 26

An overview of practices, application rates, end product quality, farm economics and grower education to achieve biological soil balance.

Ralph Jurgens

THIRTY YEARS AGO, we started out at New Era Farm Service in Tulare, California making 1,000 tons of compost that first year. Back then, compost was not promoted for mainstream agriculture but only for use on backyards. We got this kind of reaction — "You must be a hippie if you're making compost because it would never work in the real world."

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THE MAN WHO DISCOVERED THE "DIVINE MATERIALS" IN COMPOST

BioCycle July 2004, Vol. 45, No. 7, p. 58

Compost life continues bright, vigorous and upstream for Harry Hoitink, as he "not really retires" from The Ohio State University research center.

Gene Logsdon

AS UNLIKELY as it may seem, Harry Hoitink — one of the most respected compost scientists in the world — has something in common with Walt Whitman, one of the most respected poets in the world. In one of his poems, Whitman exclaims with his usual ebullience: "Behold the compost! Behold it well! It grows such sweet things out of corruptions...it gives such divine materials to men and accepts such leavings from them at last."
Divine materials? As a plant pathologist, Hoitink would hardly allow himself such poetic license. But then again when he starts talking about the secrets that he and his team of scientists have unlocked in compost, one is tempted to think that Whitman was one very scientifically-perceptive poet or that Hoitink is one very poetically-perceptive scientist.

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FUNDS SOUGHT TO EVALUATE THERMOPHILIC DIGESTER PERFORMANCE

BioCycle July 2004, Vol. 45, No. 7, p. 57

Developed at North Carolina State University, digester needs to be operated at full-scale to verify rapid pathogen destruction, biogas production rates and economics.

THE THERMOPHILIC anaerobic digestion (TAnD) process developed in the poultry science department at North Carolina State University is reported to have several key advantages over other animal waste treatment technologies. According to Kurt Creamer of the North Carolina Solar Center in Raleigh — who worked with Prof. Jason Shih on its development, one crucial advantage is the rapid destruction of pathogens at the elevated temperatures associated with thermophilic AD. "The rate of volatile solids reduction is also greater at these elevated temperatures, resulting in much simpler design and small vessel volumes compared with mesophilic or ambient temperature digesters," explains Creamer. But now the challenge is larger scale analysis.

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PREPARING ENGINEERING STUDENTS FOR A FUTURE IN ANAEROBIC DIGESTION

BioCycle July 2004, Vol. 45, No. 7, p. 55

A design course at Villanova University gives undergraduates opportunity to build a digester to serve special manure management needs of "client farm."

Metin Duran and Ronald A. Chadderton

ENGINEERING PROGRAMS at universities nationwide are offering senior level "capstone" design courses in their curricula. Students in these courses incorporate technical knowledge into "real world" design problems. At Villanova University near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, our Civil and Environmental Engineering course is focusing on anaerobic digester design for manure management.

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EVOLUTION OF A COCOMPOSTING PLANT

BioCycle July 2004, Vol. 45, No. 7, p. 46

Davenport, Iowa facility turns out the right blend of biosolids and yard trimmings compost to be successful operationally and financially.

April Goodwin

HOUSED in a $1.1 million, 120,000-square foot building, the city of Davenport Compost Facility serves as a regional collection center for green waste in Scott County, Iowa and as a cocomposter of 150 cy (28 dry tons/day) of biosolids. Receiving an average of 90,000 cubic yards (cy) of yard trimmings plus 30,000 cy of brush annually, Davenport converts all feedstocks into 25,000 cy of compost and 6,000 cy of landscaping mulch/year. Started in 1989 as a pilot at the Scott County landfill to meet the state ban on landfilling yard trimmings, the original goal was to reduce landfilling by 25 percent. Efficient operations have actually reduced landfill volume by 28 percent.

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CAPTURING WOOD IN MIXED C&D DEBRIS

BioCycle July 2004, Vol. 45, No. 7, p. 42

Facilities in New York and Massachusetts employ systems that increase recovery rate of wood, a high value material in the C&D stream.

Nora Goldstein

LIOTTA Bros. Recycling Corp. in Oceanside, New York has its roots in the trucking business. Its fleet of dump trucks and walking floor trailers were used to haul waste materials, including construction and demolition debris, and make deliveries of end products, including topsoil and mulch. "We started realizing that loads we were hauling to the landfill and paying to dump contained recycled materials with market value," recalls Vic Liotta, owner of the company. "About ten years ago, we decided to move into the recycling end of the business."

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USING ON-SITE SYSTEMS TO COMPOST FOOD RESIDUALS

BioCycle July 2004, Vol. 45, No. 7, p. 38

Area businesses and schools partner with King County Solid Waste Division to recycle residuals and lower disposal costs.

Kinley Deller

KING County, Washington’s Solid Waste Division is evaluating the feasibility of on-site, in-vessel commercial food residuals composting. The pilot program — which is assisting 13 schools and businesses in acquiring and using the small units — will provide data for those interested in initiating similar programs. Partially funded by a grant from the Washington State Department of Ecology (DOE) last year, the project primarily focuses on two systems: the BioStack/Advanced BioSystem and the Earth Tub.

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