* i
In the photo from left, David D. Kann Jr., Adams County Conservation District
Chesapeake Bay Program Nutrient Management Specialist, John Caffrey, certified
recycling professional for Wilenta Feed InC. of Secaucus, N.J., and Ken Smith, who
raises turkeys for Wampler Foods on his New Oxford area farm, look at a mechan
ical composter being tested on Smith’s farm.
Adams County
Composting Program
(Continued from Page A 33)
“For our use we don’t need to go that far.
No composting that we ever see goes that far,
but it could,” Caffrey explained.
The five variables of composting are air,
water, nitrogen, carbon and particle size. And,
Caffrey said, “If we take our composter to a
new site we have to work with it to adjust
those variables until we get composting to a
suitable end.” Experimentation is a necessary
component of the process, he said.
Ken Smith who operates a farm that pro
duces turkeys for Wampler Foods of New
Oxford tried the composter and said while he
previously spread manure on his fields this
process produced a much more refined prod
uct that could be sold.
Caffrey said his company is also investi
gating the possibility of setting up their own
composting site in the area, “taking waste
material in from food processors and so forth
to get a custom blend . . . and sell the end
product ourselves .., this could be as early as
six months from now.”
The company was planning talks with the
Adams County Solid Waste Authority which
is investigating the development of a com
posting site.
Bicky Redman, Adams County’s Solid Waste
Coordinator, said it appears that a central
municipal composting site would save the
community money. It would be the first such
operation in the Commonwealth. She said the
county hopes to have such a site chose by the
end of the year.
The digester used on the farms is a small
version of what the county would need, she
said. The authority would probably need two
digesters that each measure 180 feet in
length and are 14-feet in diameter. “We would
be loading 50 to 70 tons per day,” she said.
The composters would be turning 24 hours
a day and each load would be digested in
three days—the same as those on the farms.
Cost of the project is estimated at $l4 million.
And, just as in the case of farmers, the
county would look for a market to sell the end
product. “We’re looking at possibly golf cours
es or turf growing businesses,” Bicky said.
She said with the number of landfills clos
ing, composting becomes a viable means to
dispose of waste.
And, in the case of farmers it might just be
an economic option to dispose of their farm
waste and earn cash too.
MILK
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