BOONE –A new compost facility at Appalachian State University is enhancing the university’s capacity to divert food-prep waste from the area’s landfill and to create rich mulch for campus landscaping.

The new facility off State Farm Road, which officially opened Nov. 16, can handle up to 275 tons of materials, including meat scraps, compared to about 100 tons with the university’s former system. The facility also has the potential to take post-consumer waste someday.

“It’s going to really help us in our sustainability efforts,” said Mike O’Connor, director of Appalachian’s Physical Plant. “We’re going to increase the amount of food waste we’re going to be able to put through here.  We’re currently recycling or diverting about 40 percent of our waste. That’s phenomenal.  This will allow us to increase that number.”

At a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Provost Lori Gonzalez said, “You might think, ‘Why are we here to celebrate composting?’ We know that it will reduce our carbon footprint, it gives us additives into our soil that’ll make our campus even more beautiful, but really we do it because it’s the right thing to do to take care of the earth and our resources.”

She added, “The fact that the campus and our students have made investments in sustainability really shows that it’s an important value on this campus.  I like the fact that we have the best facility in the state and the other sister institutions will now have to catch up yet again to Appalachian.”

Composting is a naturally occurring phenomenon, in which microorganisms break down materials when given the proper amounts of air, water, carbon in the form of wood chips and tree trimmings, and nitrogen in the form of food waste. The process generates heat, which further breaks down the materials. All pathogens in the material are killed when the compost reaches a sustained temperature of 131 degrees Fahrenheit for three days followed by 11 consecutive days of temperatures above 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Compost is ready to cure following this two-week period, and can be used as a soil amendment after a 45-day curing period.

The four-bin facility was made possible with support from the design team of Advanced Composting Technologies, based in Candler, and Green Construction of Boone. “They wanted to be a part of Appalachian’s sustainability movement. They see us as a good partnership, that we can lead the way,” O’Connor said.

The bins are designed with under-floor piping of air and collection of moisture run-off, known as leachate, which can be reapplied as needed to facilitate the composting process. A kiosk will be installed at the site to explain the process of turning food waste into compost.

The new compost facility accommodates a 300 percent increase in composted materials since 1999, when students helped develop a compost facility to reclaim pre-consumer food waste for other uses on campus.

“This is exciting to me because I was a part of this movement as a student,” said Jennifer Maxwell, university resource conservation manager.

“Sustainable development students proposed food waste collection to the Physical Plant in 1999 and they started composting with a static pile. In a class I took in 2000, we built an aerated system with an old blower motor and perforated pipe. It was pretty low-tech but it worked and it worked for 10 years,” she said.

Maxwell, who has worked in the composting and recycling field in Arizona and North Carolina since graduating with a degree in industrial technology in 2001, worked closely with Advanced Composting Technologies to create the new facility. She described Appalachian’s growth in sustainability in the past decade as “phenomenal.”

“From early on, we talked about incorporating students. There will be opportunities for students and faculty to conduct research in biology, chemistry and other environment-related programs at this site. One graduate student, Michal Duffy, is already researching with Food Services ways to expand collection to post-consumer waste,” she said.

Kristopher Kuhn has been hired as the new compost operations coordinator, and he will manage the daily operations of the facility.

###