People have been sorting compost, recycling and trash into the bins at Baker University Center since it opened a year and a half ago, and with the arrival of Ohio University's composting machine, the practice will soon be put to use.
The $375,000 Wright Environmental Management in-vessel composting unit was delivered Tuesday to its site on Dairy Lane. OU employees and a crane operator lifted the parts into the building that will house it Tuesday before the roof was built.
Construction of the roof will be finished within two weeks and a solar array will be installed between Sept. 10 and 17 to provide energy to run the machine, said Mark Whitney, landscape planner and project manager for Planning and Implementation. Then OU will test the machine before it is up and running for Fall Quarter.
The 10-ton machine can process up to 2 tons of compost a day and will turn food, paper products, wood chips and biodegradable dining ware into a soil amendment that will be used on campus as fertilizer. -
Marcus said. That's why we started so early. Baker Center is so much more of a challenge because of the patrons.
She added that the biodegradable service ware creates even more of a challenge because it is not readily apparent if it is biodegradable or not. OU has been monitoring the bins and will begin composting at Baker Center when they find waste is being sorted correctly.
When something goes into the compost machine that is not biodegradable, it comes out the same as when it went in.
Employees can pick out items such as a plastic bottle, but smaller items such as foil or ketchup packets can become shredded and hard to find, Marcus said.
The Office of Sustainability will be working in the dining halls and conducting a survey to increase awareness about the composting project, she said. They will also continue to pass out information to people at Baker Center.
It's not that students need to change what they are doing but they need to know what's going on Marcus said.
OU expects to compost 25 percent of its solid waste in the machine, which is the largest in-vessel composting system at any university in the country.
The project received more than $335,000 in grant funding, including $300,000 from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and more than $35,000 from the Ohio Department of Development.
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Jackie Best
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Rain delayed construction yesterday, but the crew expects the roofing and metal siding will be finished in two weeks.
