MAKING COMPOST

Eliminating the nuisance factor
Facility construction
Processing

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By Lynn McCracken Lucas

If you were hoping for an abracadabra recipe guaranteed to transform decay into black gold, you’re going to be disappointed.  This ain’t a Harry Potter book, and there’s no earthly wizard powerful enough to work that kind of magic.  Composting isn’t paint-by-numbers.  There are no cookie cutters, stencils, or foolproof formulas.  You can’t even count on bugs-in-a-bucket, because if conditions aren’t right, all the inoculants in the world won’t produce a good batch of compost.

Composting isn’t about tools and gadgets … or engineering, either.  With the Cadillac of turners, tumblers, or temperature sensors at your disposal, it’s still possible to make bad compost, because composting is – first and foremost – a biological process.  Physical handling enhances the biology, not the other way around.

If you can only remember one rule, remember this:  keep the bugs happy.  They’re making the compost, not you.  No matter how much or how little compost you want to produce each year, no matter what raw materials you’re starting with or which technology you choose,  it’s all about the bugs.  

Unless you want to become the community pariah, nuisance control will be Priority One for your composting operation, regardless of size.  Scavengers, dust, noise, traffic, and odors are the biggies in composting, and failure to plan for, neutralize, and mitigate these irritants almost always leads to big trouble in the form of ill-will, lawsuits, and regulatory hell.  

A.  Site selection.  Elimination of the Nuisance Factor begins with the decision on where the facility, the tub, or the backyard heap will be sited.   To save a fortune in aspirin, put these two factors above geology or market issues when selecting a site: 

(1) PREVAILING WIND.  Odors and dust are carried on the wind.  Call the local[1] airport or visit www. ____________ to learn how the wind moves at different times of the year at your location.  Site your facility so, most of the time, the wind blows away from the neighbors.  Install a windsock or other inexpensive monitoring device and, whenever possible, postpone some tasks for days when the wind blows in your favor.  Wind hitting a bank of trees or buildings will carry dust and odor up and over, dropping it at a distance equal to about ____ times the height of the barrier.  Whether this works for or against you depends, once again, on the location of the active composting area.

(2) PROXIMITY OF NUISANCE DETECTORS, a.k.a., the neighbors.  Increased truck traffic, dust, and noise are potential fodder for community conflict.   While the composting choir may tolerate low nuisance levels for the sake of the environment, brethren in the pews will not ... and that’s almost everybody. Know who your neighbors are and where they sit.  Plan and manage accordingly.

            B.  Odor.  Decay stinks.  People don’t like odious odors, so don’t put your compost pile where people can smell it. The premise is simple enough, but as any veteran compost-maker will tell you, the execution is tough.   No matter how sophisticated the composting system and management methods are, feedstocks are often well into the decomposition cycle before they get to the compost pile.  Even indoor and in-vessel composting operations must deal with odors emanating from hauling and off-loading activities.  Like the canary in the mine shaft, odor is an indicator that something has gone wrong with the composting process.   Fix one, and you fix the other.  (See Section 2-3: Managing and monitoring the composting process.)  Failure to successfully deal with and negate odors can doom a composting operation, so put odor control at the top of the management heap. 

            C. Scavengers.  Flies, rodents, and other neighborhood marauders see a compost pile and say “yum-yum.”  At home, chicken wire and pallets may keep out the dogs, but it won’t deter flies and rats.  Consider a compost tumbler or bury fresh kitchen scraps in the middle of a pile of finished compost.   For larger operations, the composting mass is no longer attractive to scavengers once it has met PFRP and VAR, so proper preparation and choice of technology are critical factors in facilitating rapid biodegradation and moving feedstocks through the “tempting” phase. (See Section 2-3:  Managing and monitoring the composting process.) 

            D. Dust.  The surface of a working or finished batch of compost may dry out from exposure, even when the interior moisture levels are ideal.  Sprinkle the surface as needed.  Wet a dry pile thoroughly before moving or turning.  Trees and shrubs will filter particulates and keep the dust on your property where it belongs … plant them if your landscape is bare.

            E. Traffic.  For larger composting operations, feedstocks are often delivered in a big truck trailing big odors.  Work with generators to develop storage systems and pick-up schedules that minimize odors. Insist on transportation routes that bypass residential neighborhoods, schools, hospitals, playgrounds, and other places of public assembly or schedule deliveries so trucks pass through neighborhoods when most residents are at work and school.  Drive the routes to verify loads will not exceed bridge weight limits.

            F. Noise.  Ditto on the trees and shrubs … they filter noise as well as dust.  A ___-ft. band of wooded area (trees and shrubs) will reduce decibel levels by _____ percent.

            G. Camouflage.   Double ditto on the trees and shrubs for providing camouflage; also good are berms, fences, and big buildings.  Nuisance complaints can be rooted in perception as much as fact, so making the composting operation invisible to the neighborhood may keep your pile(s) from taking the heat for every whiff and dust cloud that wafts through the community.