|
  
|
|
Permitting /
Environmental Compliance –
|
|
|
Composting is an environmentally beneficial activity and good
business! Several regulatory permits and issues
must be handled in order to operate legally.
The Washington Solid Waste Handling Standards (WAC
173-350) that went into effect February 10, 2003, apply
directly to composting facilities. Under these
regulations, operating and permitting requirements vary
depending upon the feedstock type and quantity of
material you will be processing. Benefits of
operating under a permit include the ability to meet
WSDOT specifications for erosion control media, and the
potential for listing in WSDA's Brand Name Material List
as an approved Organic food production amendment.
Terre-Source has
years of experience with solid waste handling permit applications
and air agency permit applications for many types of
operations. Our expertise includes applying the regulatory requirements, streamlining the permitting process,
and working with the various governmental agencies
required to
get your facility permitted as quickly and efficiently as possible.
We will work with you to establish positive relations between you and
your regulators and help you get off to a great start creating
high-quality
beneficial
products.
|
|
|
Facility
Design –
|
|
|
The microbial composting process can be optimized by taking
into consideration the needs of the microbes,
encouraging their growth, and utilizing their metabolic
by-products, heat
and plant soluble nutrients, to create a high quality,
marketable product.
Terre-Source
can help you develop a facility design that optimizes
your site and feedstocks to while minimizing your material
handling costs.
A good-fit design can help your operator efficiently
monitor the microbial activity, meet regulatory
requirements, and produce a superior product.
|
|
|
Environmental Education –
|
|
|
"Full Circle" Composting in schools provides a hands-on
experience for students to learn and to apply lessons in
ecology, biology, microbiology, botany, chemistry, soil
science, nutrition, food production, weights & measures,
Scientific Method and more! Such a
program helps schools reduce the wastes generated and
increase the sustainability of the facility. It reduces
the carbon footprint of the school, and provides
opportunity for community interaction.
Terre-Source
can:
-
help your school perform a
'waste audit' to determine the amount and type of
food waste that will be composted,
-
select an appropriate composting
system,
-
integrate food waste collection and
diversion into your school's activities,
-
help your school during 'start-up' of
collection as well as setting up your composting
system,
-
provide on-going trouble shooting for
your composting program and your teachers, students,
and operators,
-
present the benefits of 'Full-Circle'
composting programs and help teachers with technical
questions about composting and all of the subjects
that students can learn from composting.
A well-fit system and appropriate
planning can help your program Start Up for
Success! The fun your students can have
brainstorming fund raising or waste reduction
activities while they learn to ease the waste stress on
our planet cannot be underestimated!
|
|
|
Process Consultation
–
|
|
|
Terre-Source
helps composters produce high quality compost products
by providing expertise in the composting process. We
can help you meet your client's specifications and
increase your market!
Terre-Source provides:
þ
Process
recommendations
to help control the composting parameters to help ensure
good pathogen reduction, odor control, weed seed kill,
and regulatory compliance that will create a high
quality product focused on your market;
þ
Careful
scrutiny of monitoring data such as temperature,
oxygen content, and laboratory test results as well as
site inspections to help maintain optimum composting
efficiency;
þ
Third
Party Review
of compost facilities to help streamline record keeping,
annual reporting, and product handling;
þ
Terre-Source
can also prepare the required annual reporting
and help pull together the information needed from the
process monitoring and material volume data collected
during the year.
|
|
|
Organic Listing –
|
|
|
Compost is becoming recognized as an important source of
organic matter and slow-release nutrients for organic
and conventional agriculture. Organic farmers have
the added burden of needing to report all inputs to
show that they meet the National Organic Program's
requirements for Organic Food Production. The
Washington State Department of Agriculture maintains a
"Brand Name Materials List" of products that meet those
requirements. Having your compost product listed
on that approved list can increase your market for
finished compost and establish your product in the new and
growing arena of organic agriculture! Terre-Source
can prepare your application, help you with your
sampling and analyses, and with your marketing materials
so that your organic soil amendment product is at the fingertips of
organic farmers in Washington State.
|
|
| Recycling
Outreach / Coordination / Education –
|
|
|
"Reduce - Re-Use - Recycle" is becoming even more
important as society realizes the impact of continuous
extraction of resources to produce the items we use
daily. From reducing our carbon footprint to
energy costs of production and ecological costs of
producing raw materials, society needs to use materials
more wisely. Terre-Source can help
companies and governments implement recycling programs
for landscaping wastes, food wastes, and other organic
materials, as well as all of the more traditional
recyclable materials. We can also help investigate
uses and re-uses for other waste products to create
innovative and cost effective recycling programs. Terre-Source
can help you reduce your disposal costs, your impact on
the earth, and simultaneously increase your
environmental image.
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
Personnel Training
–
|
|
|
Composting uses biological processes to heat and degrade organic feedstocks to
produce a biologically stable, humus-rich, beneficial soil amendment.
Optimizing composting
microbial processes is similar to raising crops and larger animals.
A farmer must provide for his or her animals' needs such as food, water, and
environment for them to thrive and reproduce.
The compost facility operator is essentially a 'microbe farmer' who must provide
those elements for his or her biota.
Because any biologic system is necessarily complex, the operator must pay
constant attention to the “behavior” of the system. Ultimately
it is the Operator who most influences the success of the process. The
skill and expertise of the Operator is, therefore, critical to the success and
ultimate production of high quality compost.
Terre-Source can provide Operator training and on-going consultation on
all aspects of the composting process and compost facility set up.
|
|
|
|