Athens composting facilities give new uses to organic waste to avoid being sent to landfills.
Those who wish to give purpose to otherwise useless food scraps can leave it up to the Athens-Hocking Recycling Center to turn it into nutrient-rich soil.
The recycling center operates a Class II composting facility at its new location near The Plains, on Industrial Drive. The composting service, which was previously offered by The Compost Exchange, offers curbside pickup at a fee for those who subscribe to the service, as well as drop-off locations at the facility and the farmer’s market on East State Street.
The organic waste eligible for pickup under the Class II designation — overseen by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and local health department — includes vegetables, fruit, coffee grounds, tea and tea bags, egg shells, bread, paper towels, napkins and grass clippings.
Waste such as meat, fish, bones, dairy products, oils and fats, wood and animal waste are not permitted to be composted.
The collected waste is mixed together and added to the facility, and then undergoes a two month composting process to produce the bulk material for the final product, said Bruce Underwood, the center’s spokesman. That material is then put through a screening machine to produce a usable soil, which is available for purchase at the facility.
“People associate us as just a recycling center, but we do more things,” Underwood said. “In 2014, the numbers I got were that we collected over 130 tons of food waste last year alone.”
Underwood said the center kept all of The Compost Exchange’s previous subscribers, including several hundred people who signed up for curbside service and businesses such as Chipotle, Casa Nueva and the Ohio University Inn.
He said the center hopes to increase numbers for the service through utilizing social media and advertising, as well as extending the service beyond what the center currently offers in Athens, The Plains and Chauncey.
The service comes at no cost for taxpayers, as the center is a private, non-profit company, he added.
Those who wish to register for curbside pickup can do so at the company’s website, which also lists the rates for pickup.
OU is also home to a composting facility, which happens to be the largest in-vessel composting system at any college or university in the U.S., said Elaine Goetz, sustainability specialist at OU.
However, this system is not open to the personal food waste generated by OU students and is utilized by •Culinary Services.
According to the Office of Sustainability’s website, a 2012 expansion allowed for 100 percent of pre- and post- consumer dining waste to be composted.
Goetz said that students can utilize this service when hosting an event through Event Services by requesting any compostable waste from the event be taken to the composting facility.
The Office of Sustainability is looking into making the facility open for students through placing compost bins at residence halls, she added.
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