Agricultural Composting
Introduction
Every food product that we, as humans, consume has a significant
volume of organic waste associated with it. This came to me one
day as I toured a beef feed lot in Eastern Washington and I stood
next to a 10,000 ton pile of waste potato products that was being
utilized as cattle feed. Looking closely at it, I could identify
french fries, tater-tots, curley fries, buffalo chips, hash browns
and every other potato product that one can buy in a grocery store
or have served to them at a restaurant.
Those who study municipal waste streams estimate that approximately
40% of all waste that ends up in the landfill is organic and can
be composted. Much more waste results from agriculture and is not
even considered in this total. The following pages present photographs
and brief descriptions of example composting projects completed
by O2Compost (with few noted exceptions). The volume of organic
by-products derived from agriculture is incalculable - this, in
my opinion, also represents a tremendous opportunity for those interested
in reestablishing agricultural sustainability.
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