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UNH biology student, Patrick Kaplan ’20, follows HB 1704 relative to compost
University of New Hampshire students explore the science behind the underlying aspects of current issues under consideration at New Hampshire's State House.
From UNH Cooperative Extension, this is Relative to New Hampshire. Step into the classroom and listen in while a group of UNH students explore the underlying aspects of current issues under consideration at New Hampshire's State House. We pick apart those issues and connect with experts. All to share with you, insights from our scientific community that enhance our understanding of the biological world right here in New Hampshire, home of the greatest democracy in the world.
Anna: I’m your moderator, Dr. Anna Kate Wallingford and I’m diving into the archives to share with you the work of last year’s class of science liaisons…well Extension’s first class of science liaisons actually, from the spring of 2020. This remains a rather experimental project but it was particularly unclear what we were up to last year. All I had planned was to send my two brave volunteers up to Concord to sit in on some public hearings, take notes, and report back what they learned, maybe make some connections between members of the UNH community and the legislature. I wasn’t really sure…but the pandemic changed our plans and we were relegated to zoom meetings only. This ended up being quite the boon for us as it was a little easier to schedule and record interviews with the folks we wanted to talk to.
I was blown away by how bright and resilient Patrick and Ryan were through this – UNH students generally blow me away – I kind of just said “make a podcast episode” and I’ll be playing their final projects pretty much in their entirety, including this interview that Patrick conducted with Dr. John Aber last year and…actually, Patrick does a way better job of explaining this project so I’ll let him take it from here:
Patrick: Hello, my name is Patrick Kaplan, and I'm a newly graduated biologist from the University of New Hampshire. Throughout the last semester, Dr. Anna Wallingford, Ryan Spellman and I have been working on a project that analyzes in dissects bills in the state legislature that pertain to the environment and agriculture. In this project, the three of us have selected specific bills to investigate any issues that could arise from their passing. After considering each bill, we will talk about the problems that could affect the agriculture the environment in the people that the bill is intended for. The idea of the project was to gain a better understanding of proposed bills in US New Hampshire experts to educate us on these topics.
I chose House Bill 1704, which would affect the rules of composting in New Hampshire. I reached out to Dr. John Aber, a professor in the colleges of Life Sciences in Agriculture at UNH to discuss this compost bill. Dr. Aber performs most of his research in sustainable ecosystem management His active project is focusing on nutrient and energy balances in UNH is first in the nation organic dairy Research Farm, where they are trying to reduce the dependence on external sources of energy, reduce the farms carbon footprint, and new static aerobic composting techniques to generate heat for use on the farm. The bill in itself is read compost rulemaking, the commissioner shall initiate rulemaking pursuant to RSA 149 m seven by September 30 2020. Relative to requirements and best practices for facilities that compost organics including vegetable matter, meat by-products, dairy products, and dairy product derivatives.
I begin my research on this topic as any person does in today's age. Google. I googled what compost was in the benefits in the cost of composting industrially. This gave me a lot of information sent me a lot of different directions. I'd like to start about talking about what exactly is compost. By definition, compost is decayed organic material used as a plant fertilizer.
So quick information from the Environmental Protection Agency about compost. Food scraps and yard waste make up more than 20% of what we throw away and can be composted. Composting eliminates the required space in landfills and reduces methane released. Compost requires three main components browns, which are dead leaves, branches, and twigs. Greens, which are grass clippings, vegetable waste, and food scraps. And water. The benefits of composting include it enriches the soil, helping retain moisture, reduces the need for chemical fertilizers encourages the production of beneficial bacteria and fungi and reduces methane emissions.
So to me personally, and to the group, compost sounds like an amazing tool to help our gardens and soil as we eliminate our constantly shrinking landfill capacity. I started to read a paper to educate myself a little bit more on compost. This paper was by M.D. Bertolli and Giovanni Bellini was about the biology of composting. In this paper I learned that simple carbon compounds, like soluble sugars in organic acids, are easily metabolized. The micro org isms carry out their biological processes, and this will create an extreme increase in temperature. They will use oxygen in their biological processes to help the breakdown of the organic materials. Aeration of the compost pile is vital to the success and rate of the microorganisms’ decomposing properties.
Composting is used to speed up the natural decay of organic material by providing ideal conditions for detritus eating organisms, according to USDA. Composting occurs in three separate phases. The first is the mesophilic phase, which is dominated by mesophilic bacteria. And the second is a thermophilic phase which is composed of thermophilic bacteria. In the third and final phase of the cooling maturation phase. The mesophilic bacteria multiply quickly due to the excessive compounds in the pile. They carry out biological processes, which in return creates higher temperatures. As the temperatures rise thermophilic bacteria will now dominate the pile. These higher temperatures accelerate the breakdown of proteins, fats and complex carbohydrates like cellulose and hemicellulose, which are the major structural molecules and plants. The supply of these high energy compounds becomes exhausted and the compost temperature gradually decreases in mesophilic microorganisms once again, take over for the final key phase of curing.
Now I'd like to transition to my talk with Dr. john adder to talk some more about composting.
Dr. Aber: Professor UNH, been there a long time, for the last 10 years been doing research funded by USDA at the organic dairy Research Farm here on campus. And a big part of that project was novel approach to composting. It's called ariad static pile composting. So are you familiar with that?
Patrick: Aerated static pile composting, or ASP Composting, is when organic waste is mixed together in one large pile instead of rows. To aerate the pile, layers of loosely piled bulking agents, woodchips and shredded newspaper are added so that air can pass from the bottom to the top of the pile. The piles can also be placed over a network of pipes that deliver air into or draw air out of the pipe. Air blowers might be activated by a timer or temperature sensors. This allows the pile to get a sufficient amount of oxygen.
Dr. Aber: So yeah, that's been my involvement with it. You know, before the last 10 years, I was doing research on forests. So kind of a new thing to come to this. But this composting technique has a lot of promise because it's less labor demanding, uses less space, and produces usable heat. I think there's a good chance it could be used in conjunction with greenhouse production and such. Kind of close the agricultural loop.
Patrick: So the bill itself says the bill requires the Department for Environmental Services to make certain rules regarding compost. And then it talks about how another house bill - it goes like side to side with another house bill - that talks about that the study would commit like research on composting in similar ways they've been working with recycling and solid waste. One of the things our team was discussing, we're very surprised that this hasn't been talked about before, because I feel like there's tremendous upside to composting. We're thinking - we're hypothesizing everything. Do you know of any downfalls or maybe consequences or effects that come with composting that aren't ideal?
Dr. Aber: I really can't think of any. This doesn't apply to aerated static pile composting, which usually happens inside a structure some kind - it can be a simple structure, fairly inexpensive. But I know the composting operations outside have had some trouble with seagulls and that sort of thing. You'll probably hear people talk about rats and odors and stuff like that, but that's you know, those are not well managed kinds of things. Professional composters – there are several in New England - I think have a good record. No, I don't know of any serious environmental downsides to conquer.
Patrick: I've been reading this book called industrial composting, environmental engineering and facilities management. One of the things they talk about mostly with like large commercial scale composting was that the smell is terrible. I don't know if that comes to the anaerobic composting or if that's that it can be very, like it can, you know, cause flies to be around which can emit you know, diseases and all that kind of stuff?
Dr. Aber: Hopefully that book is all about how not to let that happen. There is a journal called Biocycle, which is for the composting industry. One of the things that they deal with a lot is odor prevention. As you know, it would be the result of non aerobic - of the pile going anaerobic. One way you keep compost piles from going anaerobic, of course, is you mix them. That takes a lot of effort. One of the things about this aerated static pile approach is you don't have to do any mixing. You put the material down over a series of pipes, those pipes are connected to a fan, you turn on the fan, and the fan draws the air down through the pile. Without turning it. You manage amount of time the fan is on, the pile stays aerobic. You don't get any of the really horrible odors, we did get some ammonia odor, because you're generating a lot of ammonia. We use a very simple bio filter, just woodchips to absorb both the odor and a lot of the ammonia. So we have done that in with the biofilter. You don't get any ammonia oders. For the size of the facility, we have even without the bio filter, the ammonia was a pretty local thing. I suppose if we're doing this on a municipal or industrial scale, maybe that's a different situation. But I think keeping you there is the key.
Patrick: I was doing a little research on the EPA website. And I noticed that the food waste in yard scraps are roughly about 25% of the municipal solid waste. And obviously there's a little room there because some stuff isn't compostable. Why do you think that oils and fats, dairy, meats are so complicated to compost?
Dr. Aber: Well, I know there is a concern about that with animals and such. So like back backyard composting, you don’t want to put meats or anything in your compost pile because it will attract raccoons or whatever's around. Yeah, they're just more complicated materials, they will decay more slowly. They probably produce more complex products as well and if they use any anaerobics, then you'd be likely to get some odors.
So is the bill just directing DES to do this or is there anything in the bill about what it should be doing?
Patrick: The bill itself is very simplistic. I think it's like a preliminary bill and I think they're trying to be like proactive rather than like a reactive type thing? So they're basically just talking about how they will eventually make rules. I think they were talking about in October this was going to get discussed a little bit more? But I think that this is kind of like a side project on sign of the solid and solid in recycling and waste department and committee. I think I think they're trying to make it more prevalent in the state of New Hampshire. The bill itself was like four sentences.
Are there any other concerns I've accomplished I don't know like with people around living around compost, you have to be nervous about you know, pathogens from insects or any other leachate that goes into their garden or you know, their water sources, any kind of stuff like that they would be concerned about?
Dr. Aber: I would think, with any kind of waste management process you've got those concerns. If an area is too concentrated or badly managed, you know, the same kind of things would happen around landfills that are poorly managed. They could happen around compost systems that are poorly managed. I don't see that it's there's anything - maybe it's more benign in terms of you don't have a lot of toxins that get into landfills.
I know the potential is there for some significant savings. I was at a meeting of the Durham town solid waste committee and they were estimating maybe a quarter of their solid waste mass, that they pay for, is compostable. They were thinking they might be able to reduce the cost of landfill and garbage disposal if they can compost. In Europe, it's just standard practice. In almost every town, there'll be another bin that is collected separately that's for compost. There's a lot of technical expertise that's built up there that can be tapped into making sure it happens properly.
Patrick: That is that is very interesting. I've been reading up on a lot of other places and their compost techniques and it just it to me like there's so much upside I was very surprised as to why more people don't do it?
Dr. Aber: Well people don’t want to separate glass, plastic, and paper…so the yucky stuff is a bit worse…
Patrick: Good point.
So with compost - like when it’s in a static aerated pile after six months or so - is it good to just go right in my garden or is there a process to that?
Dr. Aber: So actually commercial composters will usually hold material for three to four weeks and that's all part of this aerated, static process where you achieve temperatures of 130 - 150 degrees. The decomposition goes ahead really quickly. Commercial places after, say four weeks, will hold the material and they will let it usually cure for a while. They might hold it separately at a lower temperatures for a certain amount of time. If they're going to sell it - there is a whole separate thing about whether or not it's legal to sell it because it wasn't legal to sell it in New Hampshire until recently - then you may want to prepare it in some way that's attractive to consumers and such.
Yeah, it can happen very quickly. With compost, once it's done, you just put it on the soil, as long as there's nothing that’s gone into the compost, that's toxic.
Patrick: Okay. So a facility would have to monitor what's coming in to make sure that it is acceptable. Moving forward for, maybe the city of Durham or the state of New Hampshire, to do like a statewide program, would it be beneficial to reducing landfill?
Dr. Aber: I think it'd be great. An undergraduate student, Matt Smith, who with a bunch of other students about five or six years ago, went to the legislature and got Martha Fuller Clarke to create the language that you're seeing coming back now, to bring New Hampshire's laws for composting in line with surrounding states. I understand it, up to that point, if you had any compost with any food in it, you couldn't use it, no matter what you did with it. The idea of the law was that, if you've managed it properly and get the high temperature that you need for the right amount of time, then you can compost food.
One of the points they made was that there was a company called Mr. Fox, that's a composting company that's it's in Kittery, or York, or or Eliot or something? It's just across the line. It's a commercial composting company, and Mr. Fox – or whatever the fellow's name is - is actually from New Hampshire, I think. He wanted to be in New Hampshire, but the laws are so restrictive that he had to do this in Maine. One of the points the students were making is that, you're limiting enterprise here, you're, you know, kicking businesses out of the state. That was part of their proposal, which I guess in New Hampshire, that helps.
Patrick: What do you think the only major concerns for the state legislature was when it came to compost? Were they nervous, you know, for toxicity reasons, or, you know, spread of disease or other compounds?
Dr. Aber: I think it was just an old law that came out of old ideas, and it hadn't just received any significant attention. Once the students brought it to the attention of the legislature, they said, Oh, yeah, that's a good idea. Let's do that. But then, as I understand it, the change is just what you're reading there, was yes, we need to update. This is what we should do, what we need to have did was set standards. So maybe that’s what they're getting back to, to try to set these standards.
Patrick: When you’re starting a facility like that. Is it an expensive venture?
Dr. Aber: It’ll cost something and it’s a cost you’d have to weigh against the cost of landfill. So as landfills become less prevalent, and more expensive, you'd weigh the costs of composting against the cost of sending that material to a landfill. That depends. I know UNH is renegotiating their collection with waste management and prices are changing rapidly because recycling is not nearly as profitable as it used to be. And so all that's changed.
I guess there's no reason to think that it would be cost prohibitive, and it would, you know, probably make sense to have it as part of solid waste management program as one option. I actually made a presentation on this at a science talk down in Nashua a couple months ago. There was a town administrator there from, I think it was Nashua? - and when I said you might divert a quarter of your material from landfill through composting, he seemed to think that was pretty neat idea.
Patrick: That talk with Dr. Aber was purely about industrial composting in the techniques and requirements for that. Now I’ll briefly talk about small scale composting, the type you would in your own backyard.
To start you want to begin with a well drained site that is level in your garden. There are a few different ways you can do composting. To start you want to build a pile using alternative layers of high carbon in high nitrogen material or mix the two together and then heap it into a pile. If you open the layers, make sure each layer is two to four inches thick. If you're low and high nitrogen material, you can add a small amount of commercial fertilizer containing nitrogen applied at the rate one half cup of fertilizer for each 10 inch layer of material. Adding a few shovels in soil will also get the pile off to a good start. So it's commonly found decomposing micro organisms chronically next you want to add water periodically, the piles will be moist, but not saturated. If conditions are too wet, anaerobic microorganisms, those that can live without oxygen, will continue the process. These are not as effective or desirable as the aerobic organisms. This is where the bad odors will occur. Then you want to punch holes in the sides of the pile for aeration. The pile will heat up and then begin to cool start turning when the pile’s internal temperature peaks at about 130 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. You can check this with a compost thermometer or reach into the pile determine if is uncomfortably hot to the touch During the composting season, check your bin regularly to assure optimum moisture in areas that are present in the material being composted, move the materials from the center to the outside and vice versa turn every day or two and you should get compost in less than four weeks. Turning every other week will make compost in one to three months. Finished compost will smell sweet and be cool and crumbly to the touch. All of this information can be found on the EPA or USDA website. Thank you for listening and I hope you learned a little bit more about compost.
After this talk about different types of composting from industrial to small scale, we can see the direct benefits from compost. Composting is a great tool many applications but requires a decent amount of effort as well as monitoring composting at a municipal scale would need a lot of planning regulations in operational staff. Monitoring what is going on is vital for not only the success of the composting, but the safety of the final product. The passing of House Bill 1704 would enact rules or requirements for large facilities who would like to compost in the state of New Hampshire. These guidelines would ultimately determine the best practices for a facility to compost safely and produce a product that could benefit New Hampshire in many ways.
Anna: Well… I really could listen to Dr. Aber talk about compost all day. But back to the bill that Patrick was following in 2020, HB 1704 relative to compost. This bill was passed an adopted by the house but laid on the table with no committee assignment in the Senate. If this issue is important to you and you would like to see our compost regulations updated, reach out to your local representative and let them know.
Thanks for listening.
Relative to New Hampshire is a production of UNH Cooperative Extension, an equal opportunity educator and employer. All music is used by permission or by creative commons licensing. UNH Cooperative Extension is a non-partisan organization, the views and opinions expressed in this podcast are not necessarily those of the university, its trustees, or its volunteers. Inclusion or exclusion of commercial enterprises in this podcast does not equate endorsement. The University of New Hampshire, New Hampshire Counties, and the US Department of Agriculture cooperative to provide Extension programming in the Granite State. This podcast was made possible by the UNH Extension Internship program - if you’re interested in supporting great work like this for the future, learn more at www.extension.unh.edu/internships.
Music Credits: Sounds Like An Earful_ Cheesy