Harbor View Composting Facility Tour

Back in July I had the pleasure of touring my first commercial composting facility. It was awesome! The Harbor View facility was owned by Waste Management, today it is no longer operational.

 This facility sat atop an old landfill on Chicago’s south side and consists of windrow upon windrow of organic materials, slowly decomposing into nutrient rich compost.

Alex, my tour guide, looked at me funny when I showed up. I was about to take a tour of an outdoor facility which specializes in decomposing organic material and was dressed for a business meeting. It had rained many days beforehand and the earth was wet.

I showed up in pressed khakis, a tucked in button down, and black leather shoes on. Alex had overalls, a muddy sweatshirt, and work boots caked in pounds of fresh mud. I was clearly an underdressed fool.

We got into the truck and started our climb to the top of the old landfill. It was muddy and the tires slid and slopped as we ascended the mountain of trash. Our truck rounded the final bend and the ground leveled out in front of us.

The majority of the space was dedicated to windrows of decomposing material; there were a couple staging areas to accept food and yard waste separately, screen out undesirables, and mix nitrogen and carbon rich materials in the proper ratios.

If you look closely in the above photos you can see a pile that appears to be light green in color. I asked Alex if it was lye or some sort of soil amendment. “No, it’s money,” he replied. I didn’t understand at first.

Ever wonder what happens to paper money that is no longer fit for use? It has to go somewhere right? Well I found it. The Chicago Federal Reserve sends it shredded money to be composted. Over $3 million a week was sent up to this facility. Money is printed on a cotton fiber based paper and is totally compostable. Check out this fat stack of shredded cash.

Once the new material was sifted and the majority of the non-compostables were removed, Alex’s crew would move it into windrows. These windrows are designed to provide optimal conditions for the natural composting process to occur. The crew constantly monitors conditions within the windrows. They are turned over every month with a giant machine until the compost has reached its final form.

Once the compost is ready for sale, it is packaged and sold to the consumer market. Alex says they were selling the material for about $20/ton. Pretty cheap compared to worm castings and other compost I’ve seen.

I’m not sure why, but Waste Management has closed this facility. My best guess is that this facility was not profitable.

Waste Management still has a commercial composting facility in Romeoville, IL.

Have any questions about commercial composting or wondering how you can send your kitchen scraps to be composted, just ask in the comments below!

The Plant: Sustainable Business and Experiements

A couple of weeks ago I joined the one hour public tour of The Plant. What an amazing place; its one part urban factory, one part sustainable business practices, and a dash of mad scientist experiments.

This 90,000 square foot building was once the pinnacle of meat packing in the U.S. It was fully operational until just a couple of years ago, Bubbly Dynamics bought the property, which was destined for destruction. They have slowly transformed this urban shell into an experimental space which houses many different business types whose inputs and outputs benefit on one another.

 

Map explaining energy and byproduct flows.

For instance, a bakery inside uses a wood fired oven. A majority of the wood comes from fallen trees on City of Chicago Parks and Recreation sites. The excess heat from the oven goes back into the building to warm other areas.

During our tour we saw an aquaponics set up. For those unfamiliar, aquaponics combines fish farming and hydroponic plant growth. The fish’s waste provides nutrients for the plants, who then filter and aerate the water, which is then pumped back into the fish tank. This cycle can repeat forever. We only saw a demonstration area, the commercial production facility is off limits to the general public in order to maintain cleanliness.

One of my favorite businesses in the building was the Pearl Oyster Mushroom Farm. Bags of straw that have been inoculated with mycelium hang from the ceiling in a warm and moist climate. Each bag creates about 50 pounds of the edible fungi. I took a pound home to try them out and they are freaking delicious, just simply pan fry them in butter with garlic, salt, and pepper until they start to brown and crisp.

I highly recommend visiting The Plant, tours are $10 and they offer two times on Saturdays for visitors. They also host a farmer’s market outside where you can purchase items grown or made on site. For more information, check them  out at www.plantchicago.com.

Single Stream Recycling

Single stream recycling is a collection and processing system which allows co-mingling of recyclable materials. Once received at the Materials Recovery Facility, a specialized plant, the recyclables undergo cleaning, separating, and preparation before they are marketed to manufacturers for reuse.

Advanced Disposal, a hauler that operates in 17 states, explains the processing that occurs within a Materials Recovery Facility:

Advantages

• Reduced sorting effort by residents leads to increased participation 
• Reduced collection cost, single compartment trucks interchange between waste and recycling 
• Expands the list of acceptable recyclable materials

Disadvantages

• Initial capital cost for carts, collection vehicles, and processing facilities
• Contamination of raw materials can degrade quality of certain final products
• Unmarketable end products head to the landfill