At Harvest Power, we’re big believers in backyard composting. That’s one reason the site Kickstarter.com caught our eye.

We understand the challenges that face city-dwellers when it comes to composting. That’s all the more reason that a project like this could use some support.

It’s called Connecting the City to the Soil. According to Kickstarter:

New York City, on the whole, does not compost. The NYC Department of Sanitation points to density, collection costs, and lack of processing facilities as the stumbling blocks to city-wide municipal composting. As a result, the 29% of NYC waste stream that could be composted goes straight to the landfill. This means that all of the nutrients taken out of the soil will never again return to it.

So what’s the solution, you ask? That’s simple. Two wheels.

Kickstarter uses low-cost cargo bicycles to pick up organic food scraps from small and medium sized restaurants around the city and haul them back to farms for processing as compost and fertilizer.

It’s all about reducing waste and improving soil. Kickstarter is preparing to launch a pilot program to test their methods in August. To do so, though, they need everyone’s help. Pledge to support these efforts and you’ll get something in return.

• $15 – Kickstarter will pick up your compostables (they are limited to certain neighborhoods)
• $25 – Receive a free item from a participating restaurant
• $75 – Tour an urban farm and see the farming and composting plan in action.
• $150 – Visit an upstate composting farm to see the foodcycle at work
• $250 or more – Haul scraps for a day by bike and see what it’s like to connect the city to the soil.

If you’d like to help reach the goal, $6,000 for bicycles and start-up costs, visit the site at www.kickstarter.com. It’s only getting a green light if enough money is raised before Sept. 1. Recently the project also earned some ink in Earth911.com.

What are your thoughts on the project? Will you donate to the cause? Why or why not?

This post is brought to you by Harvest Power. Follow us on Twitter or connect with us on Facebook.

By Jan Allen

What in the heck does compost have to do with stormwater management?

Over the past few decades silt fences and straw bales have been used for stormwater management, often with marginal results.  Increasingly, natural systems using compost and organic matter are recognized as state of the art effective solutions to slowing down stormwater and retaining soil.  As Waste Age points out, “There is an inexpensive and effective method to remediate many contaminated surface waters, soils, air, streams and reservoirs: compost/technology/bioremediation.” -COMPOST: Better, Faster, Cheaper Cleanups

Overlapping Intersections of Soil, Water, Ecology, and Hydrology

In the last ten years a convergence of professionals with new ideas from different disciplines have resulted in discussions about compost, soil quality, hydrology and ecology.  From farms to fish, roads to riverbeds, overlapping interests include: salmon habitat, reduction in polluted roadway runoff, reduction in chemical use on the land, water conservation, soil permeability, native plantings, non-point source pollution prevention and natural treatment systems.  Terms like constructed wetland, biofiltration swale, living roof, compost filter berm, and filtration sox are showing up in best management practices.

This is great news.  The idea of engineering soils using recycled, chemical-free, locally manufactured, indigenous, carbon-neutral materials is an exciting development.  Significant improvements in retention or infiltration of rainfall can be achieved by using simple soil improvement and landscape systems.  The results speak for themselves.

Soil Study Results

A field trial using compost-amended soil and turfgrass system improved retention from 0.4 inches to 1.2 inches for a 1.7-inch rainfall event vs conventional turf design.

Another field demonstration used vegetated biofiltration “strips” to improve runoff retention to 50% by increasing the native soil depth, and to nearly 100% by increasing the depth and percent of organic matter in the soil.

A study on slopes of 15% and 34% grade demonstrated a 3-inch layer of compost performed better than silt fences and performed as well as hydromulch.  The downgradient water did not have metal salts and in some cases leachable metals were reduced.

This challenges all of us to use soils more effectively through the installation of specifically formulated soils that perform to meet hydrologic standards.  Specifically, this means developing “engineered” soils and soil-based management practices that perform as naturally sustainable systems.  It is not necessary to simply accept marginal or damaged soils as a characteristic of the urban or commercial environment.

I began this story asking, “What in the heck does compost have to do with stormwater management?”  The short answer is we are in a “watershed” moment in the world of hydrology.  We at Harvest hope to aid stormwater management efforts by providing compost and organic-based solutions to a landscape near you.

PHOTO SOURCES
Photo 1: http://www.kccwa.org/action.htm
Photo 2: http://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.net/index.php?do=photos&gId=1
Photo 3: D. Caldwell

At Harvest, we employ a technology known as wood gasification to convert wood waste to renewable syngas. It’s a method of extracting clean energy from wood-based materials that produces electricity, heat and substitute natural gas.

Wood gasification is considered clean, efficient and economically viable. It leaves a small footprint and provides 20 times the heat transfer of traditional gasification systems, while offering greater fuel flexibility.

In an article by Troy Edwards titled The Wonders of Wood Gasification, the writer explained the process in the following steps:

1. Primarily, the wood is warmed through a gasification booth so that the wood chemistry will disintegrate into carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The procedure makes use of extensive heat and limited amount of air is introduced into the compartment to produce charcoal that then transforms into gas.

2. The formed gas now moves into another booth or the combustion chamber to be fused with air and burn at high temperature, and produces large amount of preferred heat.

3. Then, the remaining gases are then channeled out through a heat changer to remove the heat and keep the effectiveness high.

4. The remaining gases leave a smoke pile.

We crafted this diagram to do the same:

This clean, renewable method of combustion also reduces the amount of waste headed to area landfills, according to Edwards. And it does so without negatively contributing to air or land pollution.

Are you familiar with the process of wood gasification? Tell us about your experience.

This post is brought to you by Harvest Power. Follow us on Twitter or connect with us on Facebook.

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