The Composting Industry…Why Change Is Needed
Solid waste management largely hinges on the concept that waste is something that can be thrown away forever. Trash is collected from dumpsters, buried, and the problem is solved. Of course, this isn’t true. There’s no “away” for trash to go.
The modern compost facility has grown out of the solid waste management industry, which considers trash as a problem to be thrown away. Large trucks collect food waste (mixed in with other trash) from dumpsters around the city and haul the waste “away” to the landfill where it is buried and considered dealt with. Some enterprising individuals have successfully turned some of this trash (food waste) into a desirable product by creating composting facilities. While this is an improvement over merely burying food waste, it still has a number of weaknesses and inefficiencies.
One weakness is the size of composting facilities (and compared to waste disposal facilities, there are few). Compost facilities are generally very large. While this economy of scale has economic advantages, it causes a number of problems too. The heavy machinery needed to run such a large facility makes for high costs. Tractors, windrow turners, or custom machines are common – and garbage trucks are needed to collect mass amounts of compostable waste. Since their operation is on such a large scale, picking up small amounts compostable material from small businesses and residences isn’t worth their time. Instead, they opt for fewer, larger generators like grocery stores, etc.
Large composting operations must also be careful of their environmental impact. While composting facilities are generally much more environmentally friendly than landfilling, runoff can still be a problem. Runoff from a large facilities usually includes a microbe-rich, concentrated fertilizer – which is toxic, nitrogen rich, and dangerous to the health of streams, rivers, and everything downstream. Managing this runoff certainly possible on a large scale, but much easier on a smaller scale, where the nutrient concentrations are lower and less hazardous.
Another weakness: the location of composting facilities. Most large composting facilities are located far outside cities for ample space. A quick, related side-note: the majority of food waste is water – around 90 percent. So we’re really just trucking water around. If one composting facility serves an entire county or metro area (which is often the case) and is geographically isolated, then not only is compostable material being trucked to the facility from all over the area, but it’s being hauled back to the city for selling once the compost is completed. A great deal of energy is used merely moving materials around. This is expensive and inefficient.
Another weakness: composting businesses are in direct competition with solid waste landfills, and are therefore at a disadvantage. Solid waste collectors are able to set prices so low that composting facilities can’t compete with them. The result? Composters must rely on large-scale operations and government subsidies to even the playing field. A business that requires a subsidy can’t survive in the long term – and isn’t serving the greater good.
Composters, then, can’t compete with landfills simply because in the short term, it’s cheaper to bury and forget trash than to process waste. Forgetting it only leaves it for future generations to deal with – so the problem of managing the waste perpetuates. And until the composting industry moves toward a more sustainable model that can accomodate growth and make participation more practical and attractive, the problem will not improve.
One of the first steps to solving the problem is to think smaller. A more effective system would compost close to the food waste’s source and close to the soil vendor. That’s exactly what Glean Earth has set out to do – and it’s exactly what you’ll read about in our Purpose.
