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(Editor's Note: This is the second of two installments on part two of Kerman's "show and tell" on recycling and composting. Part one appears in Relish here).
At St. Louis Composting, the irony is as rich as the fertilizer they’re producing. That’s because this satellite location of the company is set on top of a maxed-out, 75-foot-deep, 40-acre BFI landfill. All the do-gooding is happening at the tippy-top of yesterday’s wasteful, loathsome, land-stealing embarrassment.
“It was a wasted piece of property, and now it’s a green re-use,” said St. Louis Composting’s Steve Willmann.
The Belleville facility is now comprised of what are called “wind rows” (at left), hundred-yard, finger-shaped mounds of compost and dirt that are slowly decaying and transforming into fertile potting soil.
Compostable food is dumped along part of the wind row, and covered in dirt (below left). Technically, explained Willmann, it’s a layer of grass waste on the bottom, a mix of food compost and leaf waste, then a top layer of leaf waste. (The leaf waste is not attractive to birds, he said, which can be a nuisance). The compost is watered, and turned occasionally by a fearsomely loud and large machine called a rototiller (below right). As the compost matures, it becomes more compact and more fine.
Five to six months later, the compost has become a rich, dark potting soil (below left). It’s run through a sifter (below right) to remove things like the occasional stray piece of silverware, and finally, sold through St. Louis Compost’s various local outlets, along with related topsoils, soil blends, and mulches.
(Incidentally, the same company also turns manure from St. Louis Zoo animals into an exotic fertilizer, said Willmann.)
Our chicken bone has died (twice, kinda) and been reborn in an unrecognizable state. It may be used as compost to grow begonias in a window box, soybeans on a Missouri mega-farm, or mayhaps, grain to be used as chicken feed, even. It’s gone and completely forgotten, in a good way. That’s the circle of life, or re-use, if you prefer, and it’s much better than the dead-end street of a landfill.
We foodies talk a lot -- and I mean a lot -- about eating local. We’re concerned about directing money back at our neighbors and friends, and keeping the local economy strong, the food fresh and healthy, etc. But let’s not forget what happens while that local meal is digesting, if you will. Our local food scraps should rightfully become local compost, and not wind up in a local landfill, yes?
And you, Mr. and Ms. Restaurant Owner – we know what you’re thinking. The only way this truly makes sense in this economy is if it’s less expensive to compost than to use the usual trash dumpsters. So, you’ve got two questions to consider: 1. What is the cost of garbage pick-up vs. the cost of Blue Skies, based on a projection of how much waste will shift from dumpsters to recycling and compost bins if you use them? 2. How much money is it worth to do the right thing? Question Number One requires a consultation with Mr. Cohen. Question Number Two will haunt you in your dreams, citizen.
Our gal Hegel claims that Hodak’s has not only undergone a renaissance of ethics, but a renaissance of savings.
“We pay them [Blue Skies] to pick up six days a week and we’ve wound up saving money from our regular garbage pickup,” she said, “and we’re doing the right thing.”
Hegel is, as they say, a good boss. To watch her joke around with her staff is to understand that she is no kitchen tyrant. Truly, kindness fairly oozes from her pores. And it’s the simple mandate to be kind to the environment that led the owner of the not-as-stodgy-as-you-might-think 50-year-old Hodak’s to embrace the future via commercial composting.
And then, in one corner of the world, everything changed.
