State (MA) proposes banning commercial food waste from landfills (divert to composting)
Dartmouth farmer Thomas Kirby only began composting in earnest after he and his wife opened an equine center and suddenly found themselves with copious amounts of manure on hand.
Born into a farming family, Kirby dived in to the problem and soon discovered he had a passion for creating effective fertilizer, developing a compost mix based on a Cornell University formula and getting it certified as organic two years ago.
Today, the Dartmouth native sells about 450 yards of the finished product each year from his Smith Neck Road farm and has plans to grow his operation.
"I got excited about it," Kirby said about his compost venture. "It takes about a year for us to make the compost, to fully decompose material. We get about 95 to 100 percent repeat customers for it."
State environmental officials are counting on farmers like Kirby, who understand the composting process, to help them make better use of organic waste when they implement a ban on disposing it in regular trash systems next year. The proposed ban means any commercial entity that produces more than a ton of organic waste per week, including fruit and vegetable peels, old meat and other plant or animal material, must find alternative disposal methods. The ban will initially affect hotels, universities, assisted living facilities, and others, and the state plans to eventually include smaller businesses and homes.
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130317/NEWS05/303170330/-1/NEWS
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