OU's new giant composting machine will put food scraps to fertile use

The Athens News
By Mike Barajas - February 12, 2009

Ohio University finally brings its new composting unit online today as the university takes a crucial step forward with its university-wide composting initiative. The university will hold the official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the compost initiative at 3 p.m. at the composting site on Dairy Lane.

When the university bought the massive composting unit in August, it planned on having the system up and running by October, OU Sustainability Coordinator Sonia Marcus said. However, she stated, there were problems with getting power to the system’s site. By December, American Electric Power had finally connected power to the site, and Facilities started working to make the composting unit ready and operational by this month, Marcus explained.

The university’s composting unit is capable of processing 28 tons of organic waste and is the largest in-vessel composting system at any university in the country, Marcus said. The system works by using controlled temperatures, moisture and aeration to break down biodegradable and organic material, which it converts into nutrient-rich soil.

Marcus said the total cost of the project was $788,000, some of which was paid through two grants from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Recycling and Litter Prevention that totaled around $300,000. OU’s Facilities and Auxiliaries departments footed the rest of the funding to cover the project, according to Marcus.

Harry Wyatt, associate vice president for facilities at OU, said that his department funded roughly half the project, or approximately $350,000.

Wyatt said the composting project fits perfectly into the university’s strategy for the future outlined in Vision Ohio. The department ultimately decided to fund the project, he added, because, “the clincher was that sustainability is a strong element in Vision Ohio.”

“With anything we look at in regards to priorities, we look at how well does it match in regards to Vision Ohio,” Wyatt explained. “This stood out strongly in that regard.”

Marcus said the new composting system takes something that used to be a refuse and waste-management concern, and turns it into something valuable that’s handled by Grounds Services.

The university department, at least at first, will use all of the compost the system puts out, Marcus said. Depending on how much the system provides, Marcus added that in the future compost might also be given out to area farmers and gardeners.

The switch from waste and refuse management to grounds, Marcus said, “is a really significant shift in more ways than one.” That shift, she said, reiterates the fact that composting turns what used to be waste into a valuable asset.

“That’s really significant in how we think of resources on this planet,” she said.

Wyatt said Facilities helped fund the project because “it’s a good example of another step toward being a sustainable campus.”

“The system,” he said, “takes something that would normally be thrown away and turns it into something that the university can use.”

Wyatt also cited long-term cost benefits to funding such a project. “Diverting waste from landfills does decrease our carbon footprint, but there are also cost benefits associated with less waste.” He said the university saves money when it throws away less, because it doesn’t have to pay to store it in a landfill.
“It demonstrates a good sustainable opportunity and it saves money,” he said.

As of now, the composting system is set to process biodegradable waste from the Central Food Facility, Marcus said. She estimated that all of the dining halls could be online with the composting initiative by next fall.

Based on figures from the Ohio Department of National Resources, approximately one-fourth of overall waste is biodegradable. Marcus said the university hopes to eventually process at least half of the biodegradable waste on campus.

“We don’t really know how fast we’ll reach capacity on the unit,” Marcus said, adding that her office plans to do more waste audits around campus to see what students are throwing away that could be composted. “We’ve never really monitored what’s in our waste stream because we never really had to,” she said.

Marcus estimated that unfortunately, there is still a certain amount of compostable waste that students throw away and the university can’t use. “Many people still throw it into trash bins and places where we can’t collect it.

“We’re never going to capture that compostable waste,” she said.

Shortly after the opening of new Baker University Center, Marcus said the Office of Sustainability organized a massive information campaign to teach students how to sort out the center’s biodegradable spoons, forks, knives and plates. Her office likely will set up a campaign to reiterate to students what is and isn’t biodegradable.

“We’ll probably ramp that back up again once we’re up and running,” Marcus said.

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