1.
I am particularly interested in exactly the areas that you
mentioned...the application of all safe and proven composting
technologies in the large scale processing of organic wastes. I would
certainly appreciate receiving more information from you and others
along the same lines that you raised...what is being done in composting
organic waste, how is it being done, what processes are being followed,
are the organics materials selected to achieve a proper mix of nitrogen
and carbon, are other materials added to augment the final product, is
composting selected to assure a safe and balanced product or merely to
reduce the waste volume, are there safeguards to assure thorough
compostin of all organics, is the process aerobic or anaerobic and why
do you prefer one or another, is methane a consideration, is the labor,
process, materials handling, blending and subsequent distribution geared
towards manual labor or the automated use of equipment and machines. In
other words I am SERIOUSLY trying to learn how composting is being
approached and implemented, who the key players are, the "state of the
art" and who builds what machinery and distributes what products to
serve the processes. Realizing these are a lot of questions I would be
very grateful to a thoughtful response from around the world and around
the industry to really learn what's what in commercial composting as a
waste management strategy. To date most of what I have heard (in the
U.S.) is a broad range of assertions, claims, speculation and hype that
seems to reflect much talk but VERY FEW well thought out and
professionally implemented systems that consider worker and public
safety, quality end products in terms of the compost produced, or
automated materials handling to reduce costly manual labor. THANKS FOR
ANY AND ALL FEEDBACK!
2.
What I was
trying to get to comes from weeks of intense study of the web and going
to conferences in vermiculture, composting, organic gardening, organic
waste, processing, and sust ag.. However, with all of the many different
theories, authors, schools of thought, and sources of hype it is
difficult to get enough meat or unbiased, common sense straight talk.
For example, yesterday I was told two totally different things by two
separate universities regarding rock dust...one claiming it is essential
to the composting process and another uncategorically ststing that rock
dudts are useless in agriculture. Vermiculturists assert that worm
castings are the most valuable commodity in the garden and that you can
take raw pig manure and run it through worms to totally remove the
pathogens and add countless new minerals while improving texture.
Composters insist that worms lock up the nutrients, destroy
microorganisms, and result in a product that is less nutritive...if
anything. Other composters insist upon adding clays, rock powders,
extracts, innoculants and a very managed process while others still
insist upon quick working, in vessel, anaerobic waste consumption. All
is this is before you even get into bio-intensive, controlled microbial,
organic, bio dynamic, french intensive, etc, etc, etc..
My bottom line is simple, I am trying to determine what has been
PROVEN
in order to arrive at an approach or "sysytem" that integrates the best
of what we know...without hype or speculation......to approach a systems
perspective that in logical steps takes any and all organic wastes,
prepares them for composting, utilizes a proven approach towards
blending and preparing for the composting, processes the waste in a cost
effective, controlable, manageable, scaleable, predictable manner that
is at once fairly simple to implement without doctorate degrees in
microbiology, easy to replicate at multiple sites, and yet produces a
product that is totally safe, thoroughly composted, and well balanced.
I may be crazy, but this approach...to my mind...would cut across tur
wars and other boundaries to deliver a process/product that would
address agricultural/industrial/municipal/and environmental needs.
Please feel free to copy or forward as you may desire...I'm just trying
to assimilate what I have now spent several months studying! COMMENTS or
THOUGHTS?
-- Industrial - Commercial - Municipal - Agricultural - Community Waste Processing - Consulting Marketing & Distribution Services 7500 Spalding Lane, Atlanta, Georgia 30350 Ph/Fax 770-392-1313