Commercial or industrial composting is large-scale composting which is designed to handle a very high volume of organic waste, as opposed to private or home composting, which handles organic waste from one household or facility. The compost produced by a commercial composting facility can be sold to farms and nurseries, applied to municipal landscaping, or sold to individuals, depending on how the facility is organized. With a growing interest in composting, recycling, and reducing the environmental impact of doing business in the early 21st century, commercial composting operations expanded radically
A typical commercial composting operation collects waste from restaurants, grocery stores, and other commercial facilities which handle food. It may also collect yard waste from nurseries and landscaping companies. Some commercial composters handle greenwaste bins from individual citizens, as well, with people putting yard and food waste into a separate container and setting that container out for regular collection along with garbage and recycling. Some commercial composting facilities work side by side with municipal garbage and recycling agencies to make it easy for people to take advantage of the services of the composter, while others are privatized.
Waste collection is accomplished with a fleet of trucks which deliver the material to a central facility for composting. Some commercial composting companies also allow people to drop off compost, usually in the form of large truckloads from farms and agricultural facilities. The sheer volume of waste requires a lot of space for composting, and it’s ideal for anaerobic composting, in which compost is broken down quickly by anaerobic organisms which generate tremendous heat as a waste product.When well-managed, a commercial composting facility should not generate odor, whether it is anaerobic or aerobic. Staffers manage the compost, turning or rotating it as necessary and processing the finished compost for sale or distribution. Staff members can also amend the compost, adding materials like straw and chaff to the compost to promote rapid and even breakdown, and they keep an eye on the health of the compost piles with tools like temperature sensors and probes which can be used to pull samples of the bacteria inside the compost.
The compost produced at a commercial facility can be very high-grade, especially if the staff are conscientious about handling and sorting their compost. In the case of a municipal agency, the compost may be used on city landscaping, or distributed for free to citizens who ask for it. Privatized companies tend to sell their compost, or they engage in cooperative agreements with farms which supply raw organic waste and receive finished compost in return.
In some cities, commercial composting has started out as a volunteer-organized effort of citizens who want to promote composting. Over time, many of these free composting cooperatives have been turned into commercial operations, in response to growing demand for composting services.
The right conditions and processes:
Humans have improved upon the natural composting process very little in the last few thousand years, and as such decomposing organic matter will usually need little human interference to perform at its optimal capacity if provided with the right ingredients and conditions. As such, if the right ingredients are used in the correct ratio, then the correct conditions for optimum compost rates will usually create themselves. The composting process will be efficient and effective, with minimal generation of offensive odours and/or environmental problems if the following conditions are maintained: „
Moisture must be kept at a level between 35 and 60%. The compost should have the feel of a squeezed out sponge. Moisture levels can be estimated by attempting to make a ball with a handful of composting material. Generally, a weak ball may be formed that will break apart when bounced in the hand. If the material is unable to hold any shape at all, the compost is likely to be too dry. If water is able to be squeezed from the ball, the material is likely to be too moist;
The acidity of the material needs to be kept at a pH level less than 7.5. This is best controlled by ensuring that a balanced input of materials is maintained (e.g. the addition of too much lime will increase the alkalinity of the compost); and „
Temperatures within the compost are required to be around 55°C. Digging into the heap should give off heat that warms the hand without discomfort. This rule, however, differs for vermiculture systems where the ideal temperature for optimal worm activity is around 20°C. Too high a temperature may result in worm migration out of the active feedstock layer and lead to a breakdown of the system. Optimum temperatures, moisture levels, aeration and mixtures of materials will generally provide good incidental control of flies and other insect pests. Rodents, birds and feral animals may be a little harder to control. However, good site hygiene and management will lessen the requirement for specific control measures. Pre-processing, to physically break larger-sized material down into smaller, more readily degraded fragments, can often improve the efficiency of the process by reducing the time taken to produce a suitable product. An example of this is through the preferential addition of sawdust as opposed to woodchips.
The world is awash in traditional, petroleum-based plastics that are choking our waterways and filling up our landfills. Here at UrthPact, we’re committed to compostable plastic products, providing manufacturers and consumers with the plastics they want and need, but created using environmentally-friendly, biodegradable raw materials that can be safely composted to nourish the earth.
Today, in addition to the conventional backyard compost pile or bin that can efficiently handle small amounts of waste materials from lawns, gardens and kitchens there are industrial composting facilities designed to effectively process large volumes of municipal and commercial waste.
There are basically three techniques used in industrial composting: windrow, in-vessel, and aerated static pile composting. Windrow composting is an open-air process that places the composting material into long piles approximately 5 feet high called “windrows.” These windrows are turned regularly to ensure that all the composting materials spends some time in the warm, moist center of the pile where bacterial activity produces heat that encourages further breakdown. Because windrow composting is on open air process, it is used primarily for yard and garden waste to help control odor.
In-vessel composting, however, is a process that takes place in an enclosed environment. In-vessel composting can process large amounts of waste without taking up as much space as the windrow method and it can accommodate virtually any type of organic waste — meat, animal manure, bio-solids, and food scraps, for example. This method involves feeding organic materials into a drum, silo, concrete-lined trench, or similar equipment. This enables efficient control of environmental conditions such as temperature, moisture, and airflow. The material is mechanically turned or mixed to make sure the material is aerated to encourage bacterial activity. The size of the vessel can vary in size and capacity.
In-vessel composting takes a few more weeks or months until it is ready to use because the microbial activity needs to balance and the pile needs to cool. The waste is left in these vessels for seven days and temperature probes ensure that there is sufficient heat to kill any dangerous bacteria – it must achieve a temperature of 140°F for at least two continuous days. The waste is then transferred to a maturation pad for the final stage of composting.
Aerated static pile composting produces compost relatively quickly, generally within three to six months. It is suitable for a relatively homogenous mix of organic waste and work well for larger quantity generators of compostable municipal such as government agencies and commercial food operations solid waste such as food scraps, paper products, and bioplastics.
In aerated static pile composting, organic waste is mixed in a large pile. To aerate the pile, layers of loosely piled bulking agents such as wood chips, shredded newspaper are added so that air can pass from the bottom to the top of the pile. The piles also can be placed over a network of pipes that produces airflow in and out of the pile using air blowers that can be activated by a timer or temperature sensors.
These large-scale, centralized composting facilities can serve wide geographic areas and divert significant amounts of organic materials from waste disposal facilities where they would instead be buried or burned. Their potential impact should not be underestimated. According to a study done by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a nonprofit sustainable community advocacy organization, 78 million tons of municipal waste (food scraps, yard trimmings, soiled paper, wood waste, and some bioplastics) currently head to US landfills annually instead of to composters where approximately 21 million tons of usable compost material could be recovered and utilized.
Industrial composting produces more than just high quality compost for soil remediation. It also produces jobs, a greener environment, enhanced food security, less waste, and less truck traffic hauling garbage. All the more reason for manufacturers and retail businesses alike to join us in supporting composting on every level.
If you’re a manufacturer looking to switch from non-sustainable, petroleum-based traditional plastics to eco-friendly bioplastics, contact us today to talk about converting your injection-molded products into compostable plastics..