FROST VALLEY, N.Y.
Products that look and perform
like plastic but biodegrade like
leaves and wood chips have
taught elementary and junior
high school students a unique
lesson in resource recovery at
the Frost Valley YMCA in the
heart of New York’s Catskill
Mountains.
The Frost Valley facility,
which since 1990 has been
composting 120 tons of food
scraps generated from 28,000
visitors annually, is the largest
residential environmental cen
ter in the United States.
Now, in the first full-scale
program in North America,
more than 5,000 students from
New York and New Jewrsey
have used, collected, and
helped compost disposable cut
lery to demonstrate the value of
foodserviceware products
made from biodegradable
materials such as com.
Novon Products Group, a
division of Warner-Lambert
Company, manufacturers and
markets Novon® polymers,
which are based in part on
cornstarch and other com
plletely biodegradable mater
ials. Novon polymers perform
like plastic but biodegrade
completely in biologically
active environments, such as in
community composts.
Forks, knives, and spoons
made of Novon polymers were
purchased for use in more than
50,000 meals served from May
24 through the fall as part of
Frost Valley’s world-renowned
environmental' education
program.
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Finished compost which ori
ginated from food scraps, yard
trimmings and Novon polym
ers will be used in the Frost
Valley greenhouse to grow
fruits and vegetables for meals
in the cafeteria. When Chris
Olsen, a sixth-grade student
from Huntington, N.Y., saw
compost being used to grow
fruits and vegetables, he
reported, “The cutlery
becomes part of a cycle where
you don’t waste anything.”
“As one of the first full-scale
composters of food waste in
North America, we were eager
to incorporate cultery made of
Novon polymer into our
resource recovery program,”
said Halbe Brown, Frost Val
ley YMCA executive director.
“It provides our students with
what is literally hands-on
environmental participation,
while validating the important
role that a new generation of
biodegradable materials can
play in reducing our nation’s
solid waste.”
The students’ enthusiasm
supports the director’s belief
that the children have a high
degree of environmental con
sciousness that is refined at
Frost Valley and then taken
home. Sixth-grade student
Meghan Gifford, also from
Huntington, N.Y., said of the
cultery, “It feels good to know
I’m helping the environment
by using biodegradable (cut
lery). We should not use plastic
folks or spoons or knives.”
“We arc replacing the plastic
cultery we use for all off-site
meals, including picnics and
barbecues, with Novon-based
cutlery. This change will furth
er reduce the solid waste we
generate,” said Foodservice
Manager Chris Marshalck.
Waste-reduction efforts
spell big savings at Frost Val
ley. “Our reduction, reuse and
recycling practices have taken
120 tons out of the waste
stream and saved us over
$lO,OOO each year in disposal
fees,” said Mike Larison,
director of buildings and*
grounds. “The use of Novon
polymers takes us one step
further. They become part of a
valuable product. Here in the
Catskills, where soils are poor,
the compost is like gold.”
Achieving “zero-waste” is
an objective that can be
COLLEGE PARK. Md.
Soil compaction and acidity,
groundwater quality and weed
control these topics will be
program highlights for the
1994 Delmarva Com and Soy
bean Conference, the largest
wintertime agricultural exposi
tion on the Delmarva penin
sula.
Now in its 14th year, the
annual daylong educational
event is scheduled Feb. 16 in
the Wicomico Youth and Civic
Center at Salisbury on
Maryland’s lower Eastern
Shore. Sponsors include agri
business organizations, along
with the Cooperative Exten
sion Service at land-grant uni
versities in Delaware, Mary
land, and Virginia.
Rounding out the day’s
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PENNSYLVANIA MASTER CORN GROWERS ASSOC., INC.
approached through the use of
biodegradable polymers in
many foodservicc operations,
according to John Shcrwin,
manager of product positioning
at Novon Products. “The beau
ty of the Frost Valley prog
ram,” he said, “is that we have
elementary and junior high
school children demonstrating
how readily one can incorpo
rate biodegradable foodservicc
products like this cutlery into a
composting operation.”
The same efforts can be
implemented in institutional
program will be presentations
on “Managing Crops on
Droughty Soils” and “Market
ing Strategy of Market Top
pers.”
All relate to the conference
theme, “Farming in Today’s
Environment,” according to
Paul L. Gunther, agricultural
science agent in Queen Anne’s
County for the Cooperative
Extension Service, University
of Maryland at College Park.
Gunther again heads the
planning committee for the
Delmarva Com and Soybean
Conference. He notes that the
1993 conference was cancelled
because avian influenza was
threatening the area’s $1.25
billion poultry industry last
February.
Avian influenza has
loodscrvicc operations and
quick service restaurants,
where food and soiled paper
products already comprise up
to 80 percent of the fronl-of
the-counter waste stream,
according to Shcrwin.
“Simply by replacing the
plastic disposables presently in
use, which contaminate the rest
of the waste strccam and make
it unsuitable for composting,
restaurants can divert all of this
material and return it to the
soil, where it becomes a bene
ficial supplement.”
been detected so far this fall or
winter in commercial broiler
flocks on the Delmarva penin
sula. But any cancellation
plans for the 1994 conference
will be made in accordance
with a document recently deve
loped by extension and state
department of agriculture poul
try health specialists and
approved by the Delmarva
Poultry Industry, Inc. This
document is titled “Avian
Influenza/Emergency Poultry
Diseases: Guidelines for Sche
duling and Holding Meetings
on Delmarva.”
Activities at the Feb. 16
event will get under way at
8:30 a.m. with free coffee
and fresh soybean doughnuts
prepared by the Maryland Soy
bean Board.
Commercial exhibits and
educational displays also will
be open for visiting. Exhibit
visitors will be eligible to qual
ify -for door prize drawings.
Two Delmarva Com and Soy
bean Conference scholarship
awards will be presented prior
to the noon break.
Admission to the conference
is free. Each person arriving
before 10 a.m. may pick up a
free ticket that allows a $2 dis
count for the $5 noon lunch.
No advance ticket purchase ,s
required, as was the case m
previous years.
The Wicomico Youth and
Civic Center is located behind
the Salisbury Mall, off I S
Highway 50, in southeast
Salisbury. Plenty of free paik
ing is available.
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