F&M College's Composting Adds to Campus Sustainability

Five miles from Franklin & Marshall’s campus, down a dirt road marked by a dairy sign, lies the Terra-Gro composting facility. In partnership with Oregon Dairy, the facility has been in operation for about a decade and has a second location in Peach Bottom, PA, near the Conowingo Reservoir.
Five miles from Franklin & Marshall’s campus lies the Terra-Gro composting facility. Photo credit: Spencer Johnson
F&M’s food waste and compostable dinnerware is combined with the food waste of other companies and businesses in Lancaster County to create the compost Terra-Gro churns on a daily basis. Food waste is critical in rounding out the compost and providing nitrogen to balance the carbon found in cow or horse manure and sawdust. Too much manure draws the nitrogen out with excess carbon and leads to bad compost.
Before selling compost, Terra-Gro provided animal bedding for farms because selling compost alone isn’t too profitable. Fortunately, Terra-Gro’s connection to trucking and the Oregon Dairy farm makes the venture worth investing in. Many turf companies buy compost at a wholesale price to use over their turf due to its ability to retain water. Many don’t know this, myself included until recently, but compost is efficient at reducing stormwater runoff, the leading cause of nitrogen pollution in U.S. waterways. This is a particularly important problem in Lancaster County due to large-scale industrial agriculture.
Compost is largely unresearched, which means many farmers are hesitant to implement composting into their business practices, said Terra-Gro guide Loren Martin.
“It’s hard to calculate the cost/benefit analysis of selling the compost and buying it back,” Martin said. “Since consultants such as Team Ag and Red Barn Association, with no science background, are likely making these decisions for the farmers, they usually advise against it.”
If more farmers composted and used that compost to refertilize their farms, the problem of stormwater runoff that drains to the Chesapeake Bay would be greatly reduced. In order to see these changes, we need to bring scientists and consultants together and make sure they realize the environmental and economic importance of composting.
It takes approximately three months for a composting operation to be complete. Terra-Gro’s process involves three roofed facilities (to prevent leachates and runoff) and a staggered process strategy. The food waste is immediately mixed with sawdust and manure upon arrival to avoid excess liquid, which is collected by a sloped concrete drain and pumped back into the pile.
Conversely, if the compost becomes too dry, liquid manure from the dairy farm is pumped into the mixture to moisten it. In order to remove bad pathogens like salmonella and E. coli, in addition to increasing decomposition speed, the pile needs to stay between 130°F and 150ºF. Before the compost is complete it is screened by a giant machine with little porcupine-like sifters in order to get undesirable materials, such as glass and plastic, out of the mixture. The removal of individual condiment packets has been instrumental in reducing sources of contamination from F&M’s food waste.
Most interesting on my tour of Terra-Gro wasn’t the compost or the anaerobic digestor that powers the whole dairy farm and heats Terra-Gro’s office—it was the windrow machine, the machine responsible for churning the compost. It was designed by a Terra-Gro employee, Merle Ranck, a man with no professional engineering background, and it has twice the fuel efficiency of their old windrow machine. The patent is currently pending.
F&M’s implementation of composting is one of many things that the school hopes to accomplish with its Sustainability Master Plan.
Other environmental initiatives, such as 350.org's national Fossil Free divestment campaign to remove the institution’s endowment from fossil fuels, are also occurring on campus. F&M’s environmental stewardship should serve as a lesson for the community to support similar environmentally-friendly initiatives.
——–
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
130+ Universities Join Movement to Measure Sustainable Dining on Campus
How to Compost in Your Apartment
9 Ways to Cook for One With Zero Waste
——–
New EarthX Special 'Protecting the Amazon' Suggests Ways to Save the World’s Greatest Rainforest
To save the planet, we must save the Amazon rainforest. To save the rainforest, we must save its indigenous peoples. And to do that, we must demarcate their land.
A new EarthxTV film special calls for the protection of the Amazon rainforest and the indigenous people that call it home. EarthxTV.org
- Meet the 'Women Warriors' Protecting the Amazon Forest - EcoWatch ›
- Indigenous Tribes Are Using Drones to Protect the Amazon ... ›
- Amazon Rainforest Will Collapse by 2064, New Study Predicts ... ›
- Deforestation in Amazon Skyrockets to 12-Year High Under Bolsonaro ›
- Amazon Rainforest on the Brink of Turning Into a Net Carbon Emitter ... ›
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
By Anke Rasper
"Today's interim report from the UNFCCC is a red alert for our planet," said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
The report, released Friday, looks at the national climate efforts of 75 states that have already submitted their updated "nationally determined contributions," or NDCs. The countries included in the report are responsible for about 30% of the world's global greenhouse gas emissions.
- World Leaders Fall Short of Meeting Paris Agreement Goal - EcoWatch ›
- UN Climate Change Conference COP26 Delayed to November ... ›
- 5 Years After Paris: How Countries' Climate Policies Match up to ... ›
- Biden Win Puts World 'Within Striking Distance' of 1.5 C Paris Goal ... ›
- Biden Reaffirms Commitment to Rejoining Paris Agreement ... ›
Trending
Plastic Burning Makes It Harder for New Delhi Residents to See, Study Suggests
India's New Delhi has been called the "world air pollution capital" for its high concentrations of particulate matter that make it harder for its residents to breathe and see. But one thing has puzzled scientists, according to The Guardian. Why does New Delhi see more blinding smogs than other polluted Asian cities, such as Beijing?
- This Indian Startup Turns Polluted Air Into Climate-Friendly Tiles ... ›
- How to Win the Fight Against Plastic - EcoWatch ›
In a historic move, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) voted Thursday to ban hydraulic fracking in the region. The ban was supported by all four basin states — New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New York — putting a permanent end to hydraulic fracking for natural gas along the 13,539-square-mile basin, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
- Appalachian Fracking Boom Was a Jobs Bust, Finds New Report ... ›
- Long-Awaited EPA Study Says Fracking Pollutes Drinking Water ... ›
- Pennsylvania Fracking Water Contamination Much Higher Than ... ›
Colombia is one of the world's largest producers of coffee, and yet also one of the most economically disadvantaged. According to research by the national statistic center DANE, 35% of the population in Columbia lives in monetary poverty, compared to an estimated 11% in the U.S., according to census data. This has led to a housing insecurity issue throughout the country, one which construction company Woodpecker is working hard to solve.
- Kenyan Engineer Recycles Plastic Into Bricks Stronger Than ... ›
- Could IKEA's New Tiny House Help Fight the Climate Crisis ... ›