Compost cycle at Fraser Richmond featured in ‘Delta Optimist’

In case you missed it, last week the Delta Optimist featured an article on the circle of curbside compost. It’s journey from your house to processing and beyond was detailed by writer Jessica Kerr on Aug. 18. Harvest partner Fraser Richmond Soil and Fibre was included in the story, set in the metro Vancouver area.

If you’ve ever wondered what exactly happens to your organic waste once it’s collected, well, as Kerr writes, it takes on a sort of second life. Food scraps, grass trimmings,  yard and wood waste move on to the organic processing facility. While it seems like a mystery, the process of anaerobic digestion is explained as follows:

Fraser Richmond Soil and Fibre receives organic waste from most municipalities in the Lower Mainland. Packer trucks bring material either directly to the facility or to one of several transfer stations around the Lower Mainland.

The material is composted in large batches. The yard waste, food scraps and wood waste are mixed together in piles with larger pieces of already composted material, which are then covered with carbon activated ash from wood sources, which helps to insulate and reduce odour.

“We’re not in business if we’re producing odour so everything we do revolves around odour control and odour protection and odour mitigation,” Vice President Steve Aujla said.

“We’re trying to create an ideal environment for the organisms for them to thrive off of, so they can multiply quicker so they can ideally break down the stuff in near perfect conditions,” he said.

After seven to nine weeks, the material is ready for the next steps.

The batch of compost is sieved to separate the finer material, which is the marketable compost, from the larger pieces, which are then put into the next batch of compost.

That practice also helps speed up the composting process as the composted matter will bring many microorganisms with it to help jumpstart the new batch.

“They all get recycled, they get re-composted again until they break down smaller and smaller and smaller,” he said.

Once separated, the finished compost is piled in another area of the site. The product is sold as pure compost and also gets combined with sand to make garden, turf and top dressing soils.

The pure compost as well as the different soils are sold in bulk to homeowners, landscapers, municipalities and other companies that bag and sell them.

The entire process takes between 10 and 12 weeks.

“It’s amazing those little creatures what they’re doing,” Aujla said.

Read the full story at www.delta-optimist.com.

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Globe 2010: World-renowned sustainability experts

GLOBE 2010 is one of the world’s largest and longest-running events dedicated to the business of the environment. Every two years, over 10,000 professionals from 70+ countries come together at GLOBE for three days of thought-leading sessions presented by world-renowned sustainability experts; to survey leading-edge environmental innovations; and to participate in unparalleled global networking opportunities.

The Harvest Power Team will be in attendance of this event as well on Thursday and Friday, Look us up if you are around!

Well recognized as the world’s most influential and prestigious international environment industry event, GLOBE brings people together to discuss current trends and to showcase innovative technology solutions for the world’s environmental problems. Every two years, over 10,000 participants from over 80 countries gather in Vancouver, generating over $400 million in new environmental business.

Government decisions makers, corporate executives, and environmental technology innovators engage in high-level dialogues about pressing environmental issues such as corporate sustainability, energy and climate change, finance, and building better cities. We have brought in a host of well-respected individuals to help make the business case for eco-efficiency, including HRH Prince Philippe of Belgium, former Prime Minister Paul Martin, Maurice Strong, Klaus Töepfer, John Prescott, Mark Moody-Stuart, Amory Lovins and Ray Anderson.

GLOBE

Series events have been used to preview innovative ideas and major multilateral processes for corporate and industry leaders from around the world in advance of major international gatherings such as the Rio and Johannesburg World Summits.

Filling Up on Food Waste: A Shocking Realization

This is a link to a great blog on food waste from the Jewish Chronicle. It’s good to remember that companies like Harvest Power aren’t building organic waste processing plants simply to create energy.  Food waste is an important natural hazard, just like oil spills or carbon monoxide.

First off, why is there so much food waste in America?  According to the Food Loss project, which was sponsored by the U.S.D.A., Americans throw away 25.9 million tons of food every year.  That’s more than 25% of all the food that we produce and sell in America.  Some scientists even believe that’s a low estimate.  A study from the University of Arizona says Americans throw out almost 50% of our domestic food production annually.  How much do we spend on wasted food?  How does $43 billion sound to you?  Take a look at your fridge.  Almost 15% of what’s in there right now won’t be eaten.

What’s the big deal?  Well, when we throw out that food, it goes to a landfill.  Once it starts breaking down, your rotting eggplants and creamer cartons release methane, which clogs up the atmosphere, creating a greenhouse effect.  Carbon dioxide…that’s bad news, right?  Well, methane is 23 times as potent as carbon dioxide, when we’re talking about the atmosphere and global warming.  1/3 of the methane in the atmosphere comes from a landfill….comes from our fridges and pantries and supermarkets.

What can be done?  Feeding the poor with food we normally toss out is a great cause, and some radicals even practice “freeganism,” more commonly known as “dumpster diving.”  The blog offers this comment:

“Some communities now pick up and centrally compost food waste from commercial and residential buildings and put the resulting nutrient-rich soil to use in municipal projects or for sale to the public. And a few enterprising cities now have waste-to-energy technologies that extract methane from landfills for use as fuel.”

Thanks to companies like Harvest Power, we now have the technology to combine both of those steps into one facility, and to produce compost and energy on a commercial scale.  FInd out more about our technologies here.

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