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Composting was selected as one of the carcass and manure management options, when poultry population in a region of British Columbia was affected by avian bird flu. Six broiler-breeder farms and five layer farms were involved in on-farm composting of manure from birds that tested positive for avian flu.

Vineyards in four northern California counties are using compost made from commercial and residential food residuals to grow healthier vines and grapes. The food scraps are collected, composted and sold by subsidiaries of Norcal Waste Systems Inc., a solid waste company headquartered in San Francisco.

The city and county of San Francisco is using a 3-stream sort system for residential compostables, recyclables and trash, and an aggressive commercial and institutional program for food scraps. San Francisco is a pioneer in source separated organics diversion and it is the only city in the United States that is fully committed to a three-stream sort program for residential MSW.

The Whole Food Inc., the world's largest retailer of natural and organic foods wants to reduce its waste to zero. The company is planning to reach this goal by composting its unusable food, floral and food-soiled paper residuals.

Intervale Compost Products (ICP) at Burlington, Vermont, processes more than 29,000 tons of organic materials, which include food residuals, manures, ice cream waste, hay, wood shavings as well as yard trimmings. The ICP expects to sell more than 15,000 cubic yards and 30,000 bags product in 2004.

Vermont's Chittenden Solid Waste District has converted its Williston materials recovery facility to single stream recycling via specialized equipment. This enables residents and businesses to place all recyclable items into one collection container rather than separating them out into paper, glass, metals and plastics.

Alameda County, California, has launched an incentive program to encourage jurisdiction agencies and private companies to divert organic wastes such as yard trimmings and food residuals from the municipal waste stream. A description of feedstock collection and composting processes is also included.

Composting processes for slaughterhouse offal, such as bones and soft tissue, are described. Due to bans imposed on using offal for livestock feed, implemented to prevent the spread of mad cow disease, composting provides slaughterhouses with waste management options aside from rendering.

The article describes innovations made to the anaerobic digester at Vermont's Foster Brothers Farm to generate methane biogas. The new process, which uses steam, creates gas in less than two weeks, compared to two to three months using previous techniques.

Composting in Oregon's Deschutes National Forest addresses problems of waste management, air quality, and forest fire prevention. The process eliminates the need for incineration, thereby improving air quality, and helps prevent wildfires by reducing underbrush.

Farmers in Florida are including composting as part of their routine agricultural operations. Feedstocks typically include livestock manure and yard waste. The article also discusses challenges to on-site farm composting, such as weather and size and capacity of equipment needed to spread the compost on crop fields.

An overview is presented on new procedures implemented at a reopened compost facility at Marlboro, Massachusetts. The procedures were aimed at facilitating dialogue between city residents and plant officials regarding odor control and noise abatement, which included the installation of a biofilter and silencers placed on exhaust fans.

Hutchinson, Minnesota's program for composting industrial and household food wastes is described. The program, launched in 1998, scans waste for hazardous materials before they are conveyed to temperature and air-flow controlled retention containers where the material is formed into windrows, turned and aged, with the compost screened before marketing.

A description is presented of the trial curbside collection service which is organized by the Chittenden Solid Waste Districts in Vermont, for the collection of yard trimmings, food residuals and paper which is not recyclable.

EnviroFeed of NJ, Inc. collects food residuals from more than 130 sites in 14 counties. Its plant processes at the rate of 50 tons a day. Other firms involved in the recycling of food residuals are also profiled.

The Clinton County Compost Facility in Plattsburgh, NY, which experienced significant difficulties during the 1990s, is now being operated by U.S. Filter Operating Services. The full-service operations, maintenance and management deal includes an initial two-year term and three subsequent five-year terms. The plant is now processing 60 tons a day, with its compost recipe including one ton of biosolids to 0.4 tons of mixed sawdust and wood chips. It is anticipated that the facility will produce 70,000 cubic yards a year of finished compost at full operational capacity of 140 wet tons a day of biosolids.

It is widely accepted that there are advantages associated with being able to have a covered area for composting, particularly with regard to moisture control. However, constructing a roofed structure to protect a compost pile can be very expensive, and this is why fabric compost covers have been developed. These covers wick moisture that touches the surface of the fabric into the fabric itself, with the moisture then running through the fabric and dripping off the bottom edge. Compost site managers report that covers also bring benefits in controlling nutrient loss and raising windrow temperatures.

Intervale Compost in Burlington, VT, began receiving food residuals in Aug 1993 and is now a major compost producer using large quantities of food processing residuals. It charges a tip fee of $25/ton for food residuals. Since 1995, it has been processing almost 1 million gal a year of Ben & Jerry's ice cream residuals, with the liquid ice cream being blended with a mixture of bedded horse manure, leaves and sawdust. It started bagging in 1996, and in 1998 it produced 15,000 30-lb bags of compost.

Military bases throughout the US are increasing their involvement with recycling programs for wood wastes and food residuals. Camp Pendleton in California, Otis Air Force Base in Massachusetts, Luke Air Force Base in Arizona and the Air Force Academy in Colorado are some of the military facilities which are actively involved in recycling and composting their wastes. The recycling efforts are made on the basis of practicality and economic sense. While the military bases have their own recycling facilities, they also enter into composting partnerships with nearby farms or sell recyclable materials to various contractors.

Various applications of containerized composting are presented. One is the in-vessel system and vermicomposters utilized at the New York Hospital. The system used four Mini-Comptainers made by Green Mountain Technologies. The composts were later transferred into bigger vessels called Earth Tub, also from the same manufacturer, which is capable of processing 100-200 lbs of food residuals a day. The compost is then removed from the unit after 21 days and placed in windrows for curing. The process produced 2,000 tons/yr of compost priced at $8 per cubic yard.

The number of companies offering on-site custom grinding and turning services for waste materials in the US and Canada continues to rise. New Earth Services of Terrace, BC, for example, offers wood grinding services to ranchers, farmers, sawmills and logging companies, while Austin Wood Recycling of Texas derives a large part of its revenues from supplying tub grinding services to new home construction sites and land clearing operations. Champlain Valley Compost in Vermont serves businesses including dairy, poultry and vegetable farms.

Different marketing strategies have been used by six municipal composting facilities. Palo Alto, California, has chosen Flori Bunda Forest Products to market their compost, which is sold wholesale for $6 per cubic yard. Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, also uses a private contractor called New Solutions, to market their products and they currently sell 6,000 cubic yards each year. Woodbury, Minnesota, has been working with Composting Concepts since 1993. Newspaper advertising is often used to market compost.

Companies that sell compost only by bulk are now branching into selling compost by bags. With this new process of selling, compost is now available to retail costumers as well as to wholesale consumers. One company that profits from selling compost in bags is Glacier Gold which is based in Olney, MT. The company's primary product is lumber and it only branched out to compost to dispose of sawdust. The company has become one of the biggest sellers of compost in bags and by bulks.

Recycling managers are maintaining and adopting new programs to keep up with the continuing problem of waste disposal. The 1987 recycling bill required recycling coordinators to formulate plans regarding proper segregation of garbage for better collection and disposal. Recycling coordinators in such states as Pennsylvania, Texas, Philadelphia, New Jersey, evaluated recycling programs and found them to be effective. New programs are still being adopted to further improve the current state of waste disposal.

Several institutions in the US have installed small scale on-site in-vessel systems for handling their composting operations. Lack of enough space and labor, less equipment requirements, and the control of odors and rodents through contained systems are some of the advantages of these in-vessel systems. Containers are also easier to sell, than open piles of waste. Details of in-vessel systems at the Whiteman Air Force Base, Flushing Hospital and Medical Center, and the Universities of San Francisco and Massachusetts are presented.

Naval Stations and Air Force Bases around the country have developed various innovative recycling programs to divert solid waste from their specific branch and the state in which they are located. The programs at these naval stations and air force bases involve the collection and processing of recyclables, hazardous substances and compost organics generated at the site. A description of the recycling programs at the San Diego and Norfolk Naval Stations, and the three Air Force bases at North Dakota, Texas and California is presented.

Solid waste composting has had several failures and yet projects continue to operate because many people believe recovery to be a better option than incineration or landfilling. Solid waste composting projects are of two types: mixed waste or source separated composting. Most projects in the US use the former method. The latter method involving nonresidential sources represents the strongest growth sector. Composting plants range in size from three tons/day to 250 tons/day. Nine of the 15 composting facilities have been functioning for 5 or more years, while 4 started in 1992.

A survey reveals that municipalities, land clearing companies, lumber mills and other generators of woody materials increasingly utilize private contractors' services to process piles of wood stock at their sites. The contractors using their own equipment for composting and mulching waste materials, also benefit financially from such business. The introduction of portable equipment has sped up the process.

Voluntary and mandatory approaches have been implemented to increase multifamily recycling. Curbside recycling program at the West Cook County in Chicago for multifamilies proved to be cost-effective and has successfully diverted 30% to 50% of the wastes. But less than 20% building owners set up recycling programs. Portland, Oregon, made multifamily recycling mandatory after spending $2.2 million over a period of 6 years to promote it. Torrance, California, follows a voluntary approach, since a mandatory approach was unfeasible due to poor economic conditions.

Food service composting projects, which cover institutional and organic wastes, are growing. The preference for on-site composting is increasing due to cost-effectiveness, reduced legal restrictions and low capital investment needs. Various processing approaches utilize the static pile method, outdoor and indoor windrows, invessel and agitated bay system and vermicomposting. Efficient organic collection and recovery will determine the future of food service composting. Various aspects of food composting, such as storage and handling, and market options for the ready compost are discussed.

The Watershed Agricultural Council is a voluntary organization aimed at improving farm management and being cost effectively protecting the New York City (NYC) water supply located in upstate New York. The project was developed because local farmers wanted locally managed programs instead of regulations. The program involves the evolving Whole Farm Planning/Best Management Approach and developing 10 demonstration projects. The Department of Environmental Protection in NYC is monitoring the project. Municipalities in other towns are following this example to protect water supplies.

Solar Aquatics is a wastewater treatment process developed by John Todd at Ocean Arks International in Falmouth, MA. The process involves pumping wastewater into several tanks and filters to collect solid particles. These particles are then subjected to biological purification using plants and living organisms. The process has proven so successful that numerous fully-functioning Solar Aquatics treatment facilities have been established in Canada and the US.

The Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, NY, and the Basin Harbor Club in Vergennes, VT, are two resorts that are recycling food scraps into compost to reduce waste disposal costs. The facilities use concrete pads where the food scraps collect. The food remainders are emptied onto a composting site where they are mixed with five to six inches of wood chips, shrub trimmings and animal manure. The resulting compost is spread on gardens, gold courses and agricultural tracts of land.

Commercial and private companies are investing large capital to develop a sophisticated technology for developing biodegradable plastic materials. The latest effort in this market is developing compostable bags from polymers that do not contain polyethylene or starch, which are only degradable. A target of this effort is producing compostables from yard trimmings collection such a kraft bags and carton bags. The technology for producing biodegradable materials as opposed to degradable materials and the companies that are undertaking this effort are presented.

The advantages and problems of food residuals recycling, in particular the hauling of the materials, are discussed. Haulers need specialized equipment in order to handle the bulky materials, and the search goes on for good organics containers that can fit inside restaurant kitchens, and do not break or cause back injuries, or give off odors. To make the collection economically feasible, there needs to be a fairly dense route of collection points within a short distance of one another.

New recycling laws were enacted in Burlington, VT, in 1987 that required city residents to make sure their yard waste, such as leaves and trimmings, were recycled. Vermont's Agency of Natural Resources together with state food producers, such as the Ben and Jerry's ice cream chain, helped to finance the Intervale Foundation and the Chittenden Solid Waste District so that a food compost project could be started in 1991.

Bob Martin, owner of Martin Farm recycling in Greenfield, Massachusetts-began collecting and hauling food residuals to his 95-acre farm in 1990 to feed his 200 pigs. Using variety of vehicles, Martin convinced cooks at local restaurants to let him collect their food residuals and in 1996 he expanded his collection to supermarkets and roadside produce retailers.

An overview is presented on the production management processes of Shoreline Organics, an Oxnard, California composting company. Each month, the firm processes 2,000 tons of yard waste and 600 tons of biosolids such as sawdust, seaweed and fruit and vegetable matter. Its products include soil amendments, compost, topsoil and mulches.

An overview is presented on the composting methods of the Massachusetts company Weston Nurseries. The nursery composts 14,000 cubic yards of materials per year, which include manure, food residuals, and yard trimmings, and uses the compost to replace soil lost in the selling of plants with root-balls, and commercially markets the remainder.

An overview is presented on the South Valley Water Reclamation Facility in West Jordan, Utah. The facility contains a landfill for yard trimmings, which also processes dewatered biosolids from the wastewater treatment plant.

Novus Systems has seen steady expansion in its wood recycling division since 1998 when Waste Reduction Systems, as Novus was then known, sold off its solid waste management activities. Novus is now looking to expand both geographically and as an outside vendor for other wood waste producers.

A description is presented of the services managed by the municipal council of Little Rock, AR, for the collection and recycling of debris following a storm. The beneficial use which is made of storm debris is discussed.

Alaska Earth Works, which is owned and operated by Sitka Tribal Enterprises, plans a full-scale composting facility in Sitka, AK. This facility will be designed to process 10,000 tons of organics a year.

A network of 40 vineyards, farms and nurseries on eastern Long Island are participating in a program to establish on-farm composting facilities. Long Island Compost Corp. coordinates the program, which processes around 50,000 t/y of waste and sells the resultant organic products.

Metro Nashville is a government agency which was able to tackle debris from an ice storm in Nashville Tennessee in Feb 1994. Dropoff sites were set up for chipper services, residents and contractors to take brush. Jack Daniels hauled waste debris to its distillery, where it could be used as fuel. Storm debris was also cleared using satellite sites following a tornado in 1998. Other storm debris clearance projects have been carried out in Iowa following a storm in 1997, and Ohio, following a storm in 1998.