WOOSTER, Ohio — Ohio State University will hold a workshop on the science, art and business of large-scale composting. The Ohio Compost Operator Education Course takes place March 29-30 at the university’s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wooster.
Focus
It’s an intensive program for compost facility operators and managers, public health officials, municipal solid waste managers, and other professionals.
Teaching the course will be OARDC scientists, Ohio State University Extension specialists, facility design engineers, compost industry regulatory personnel, compost facility operators and others.
Topics will include: Composting principles, biology, methods, regulation, economics and marketing; site design and management; minimizing odors; using organic mulches in landscaping; creating value-added uses for compost; and lab exercises on fan efficiency, mixing ratios, the effects of turning, and compost sampling, testing, properties and stability.
Students will learn to conduct a variety of tests and analyses that will help them to efficiently and safely manage the composting process and produce composts during a hands-on lab exercise at the OARDC composting facility.
Statistics
Figures from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency show composting is growing. Commercial compost facilities in Ohio processed 2.6 million cubic yards of yard waste in 2008, the latest year for which figures are available — an 18-percent increase over 2006. Yard waste is the most commonly composted material in the state. Composting food waste — from households, restaurants, supermarkets and food processors — jumped 94 percent in the same period, from 35,000 cubic yards in 2006 to 68,000 in 2008, in large part due to Ohio EPA’s Ohio Food Scraps Recovery Initiative.
Cost
Registration costs $175 for members of the Organics Recycling Association of Ohio and $225 for non-members and is limited to 25. Materials, lunches and continental breakfasts are included.
Download a registration form at http://go.osu.edu/CEu or contact Mary Wicks at 330-202-3533 or wicks.14@osu.edu to receive one in the mail. Call the same number for more information.
Those interested can e-mail director@ohiocompost.org to join the Organics Recycling Association of Ohio and receive the registration discount.
