Building the Vermicomposter

We have been attempting to figure out how to build the Vermicomposter since last Wednesday (July 3rd.)  As of today, it is still incomplete, but is far more along than it has ever been in the years since it's been ordered.  Unfortunately, the directions that came along with the composter were extremely unclear and did not specify how and where things were put together, leaving us to deduce the construction of the machine ourselves.  We hope to get it done by this time next week, but Murphy's Law was not kind to us so far.  Hope for the best and prepare for the worst!  The following will be pictures of our progress so far.

I didn't get a picture of everything on the floor before we took it all out and sorted them, but trust me, it was really messy.

Setting up the skeleton of the beast, the two side rails attach to the bottom grate

After a lot of head-scratching, we finally were able to figure out how the end caps fit onto the rest of the machine

My view underneath the machine as I tightened bolts

All of the things we still need to install neatly put away for next time!

Until next time!

- Mallory

A Return to Compost

A new summer, a new action plan.  Looking back at the first posts on this blog, I see so many things that we either never got around to or changed completely.  I wonder how much of this post we will have done by the time I look back on it next summer if I'm still here?  The Rocket has been forgotten for a bit since I've been gone and we've been switching to a new mentor, but I think it's time to revive her.  (Maybe giving it a pronoun will help us not forget it this time.)  Regretfully, Professor Araya is no longer working with us, as she has found better career opportunities outside of campus.  I'm super thankful for her coverage of the composting conference in Arizona.  Our new facaulty mentor is P.J. Ricatto!  I'll miss her a lot, but PJ is great to work with as well! 

Lonely woodchips

We started by putting all the failed composting material that came from the rocket into large buckets so that we could reuse the woodchips inside, and organizing the mess underneath the Rocket.  Most of what we had was either too dry or mostly woodchips, but I believe that we can improve this soon.  We have already talked to the Dunkin Donuts and pizza staff at the first floor cafeteria here at BCC to help us, and hopefully they can learn to only put in food and not other garbage.  Fingers crossed!

For now, we plan.  We're hoping to put together our vermicomposter (finally) soon.  Time to feed some worms!

That's all for today.

- Mallory E.

Looking a little better, but still much to do!

DAY 3 -- COMPOST CONFERENCE

I slacked a bit and never got around to Day 3...  until now! :)

The conference experience was wonderful and I would love to attend their 2020 conference. I believe students should attend as well. Who knew this many people are interested in the science of compost. It has become a profitable business for many and a source of improving their livelihood.

Here are some of the highlights from Day 3:

Jeff Lowenfels of Anchorage, Alaska is the author of The Teaming Series Books for Organic Growing. His books include Teaming with Microbes, Teaming with Fungi, and Teaming with Nutrients. Each of these books delves into major detail about the different elements essential to crop growth. I was especially interested in his talk because he is an expert on the microbial communities of compost. It is difficult to squeeze the benefits of each microbe into a 20 minute talk, but the gist of it was that microbes are so important to plant development! When people think of microbes they generally think "eww germs", but in reality we cannot survive without them. If we were to take a heap of soil and remove all microbes from it, there will be no life that will come out of it.

Another important speaker that impressed me was Rick Carr from the Rodale Institute in Kutztown, PA. Because this town is somewhat close to home, I went ahead and looked into possibilities for student internships. Here is the page that I found from their website (internships are located at the bottom). This talk focused on the research that has been done at Rodale Institute regarding how utilization of compost has suppressed the issue of plant diseases that many farmers have to deal with. His research focused on common parasites that target the farmers' cash crops and they relied on his research to help them combat these challenges they were facing. This talk brought to light the importance of having a good biological community.

The last session of the day was focused around regulations regarding how different states enforce their laws regarding composting. The first talk of this session was by Matthew A. Karmel, environmental lawyer and founder of the New Jersey Composting Council. I was thrilled to meet someone from New Jersey who shared a passion for reducing food waste. He was able to share some information regarding some of the goals New Jersey has for the future, including their legislation to reduce our state's food waste by 50% by the year 2030. I was very excited to speak with him after his talk. We exchanged business cards and discussed ways in which students at Bergen Community College could help contribute to this goal.

In closing, I think this conference helped me to see just how far behind we are in terms of how we are managing our waste. However, I am very happy to have made a contact that I believe will help us to create sustainability goals at our campus.

DAY 2 - COMPOST CONFERENCE 2019

Posting twice in one day because yesterday was a looooong day!

I'll start with some good news. New Jersey has officially started a chapter as of August 2018! This would allow scientists and students around the state to do research through the Composting Council Research & Education Foundation and be recognized by the United States Composting Council (USCC).

I was able to sit in on the annual meeting for the Compostable Products Task force, sponsored by the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI). The purpose of this meeting is to meet with members of the USCC to the issues surrounding biodegradable products. Actually, I was corrected after I misused the word "biodegradable" when I actually meant "compostable" with regards to speaking up about how our college campus uses these products and we are interested in learning more about how to compost them properly. This is actually a topic that deserves a lot of attention so let's talk about that for a bit.

I linked the phrase above to BPI's page about what the differences between the two terms is, but it brings up the issue with regards to the waste diversion system. One of the important differences between these terms is that "biodegradable" has no ties to how long it takes to degrade naturally. For example, it takes a plastic bottle almost 500 years to decompose naturally (here is a link to more examples). Yes, it is technically biodegradable, but it cannot be returned back the earth within our lifetime. Instead, if we are looking to utilize a single-use fork, we should opt for a compostable type (preferably a reusable type like silver metal one that can be washed!). This could be wood, or Eco Product's Vine Cutlery made of polylactic acid (PLA). I spoke to a representative from Eco Products who gave me a catalog to read through to see the varieties of eco-friendly products available as an alternative to the traditional plastics. Here is a LINK to their line of forks; note that only two of these options are compostable and the others are not compostable, such as their Plant Starch Cutlery option.

Going back to the conference... I walked away from this meeting with contact information from one of the USCC members to let them know I have students back home who are willing to do research to contribute to their database of how our composting efforts measure up!

Another session I visited was by Assaf Sadeh from the Soil Control Lab in Watsonville, CA. By the way, he says he would be happy to test our compost from our Rocket system free of charge! His talk discussed the many ways in which we can analyze our compost quality.

After this session, I attended three sessions by sustainability advocates at different universities:

• Nicole Berg from the University of Michigan gave a talk about how she introduced a post-consumer composting program at her university. 
• Lotus Thai (who is also a fellow SCUBA diver!) talked about how she does waste audits and flaunted her amazing program at the University of California, Irvine. California, as we may already know, is a champion when it comes to their sustainability efforts. UC Irvine's sustainability program has reached nirvana as far as I'm concerned when it comes to establishing successful composting programs. 
• Julie Muir from Stanford University talked about how Stanford (yes, the big school that everyone wants to get into!) takes more of a community outreach approach to getting their students and faculty involved. 

Some things I got from these sessions: 

1. A lot of these efforts are funded by the Office of the President
2. Each department from their university puts aside funding to contribute to these efforts.
3. I am jealous of their successful programs. 

In closing, we have a lot of work to do! Hopefully with the new chapter of the USCC in New Jersey, we will be able to make BCC known to the public and show that we too want to help New Jersey reach its sustainability goals. 

DAY 1 - COMPOST CONFERENCE 2019

Greetings from sunny Arizona! Linda Araya here, project mentor for the composting project at Bergen Community College (BCC), and I am at the Compost 2019 conference hosted by the United States Composting Council whose goal is to create awareness in the benefits of composting for healthier soil, cleaner air and water, and a more stable climate. Many of the attendees at this conference are industrial farmers, business owners, and students and we are all interested in learning more about composting and its glorious benefits.

Here is a summary of Day 1 at the conference (click the links for more information):

Today's workshop was special because it was all about vermicomposting! Dr. Rhonda Sherman from North Carolina State University is an expert at worm farming and held a workshop titled "Boost Profits for Your Composting Operation with Value-Added Products" to teach us all about the benefits of vermicomposting, how it is different from composting, and also shared some tips for those interested in getting started in vermicomposting on a small or large scale. She also wrote a handbook for those looking into getting started and contains 25 years worth of information she has gathered throughout her work as a vermicomposting scientist.

So I learned something new today... vermicomposting is not composting! Vermicompost is not compost. Vermicompost tea is not liquid from the worm bin. Let that sink in for a bit. I knew I was entering territory outside of my expertise although I was able to answer a lot of the questions about the biology of compost (if I can find a link to her presentation, I'll try to link it here somewhere.) At BCC, we utilize an industrial composter called the Rocket composting system. We are a bit spoiled because it removes a lot of the labor we would otherwise have to put in for the amount of effort it actually takes to compost in a traditional manner. However, with vermicomposting it only takes between 40 and 60 days to gain beautiful, rich soil. For those of you who think of soil as "just dirt" know that even though to our eyes it may not look like much it is actually filled with life and lots of chemistry, we just can't see it. With vermicomposting, the stars of the show are the worms Eisenia fetida. Their poop is what everyone is after. Their excrement creates businesses, increases crop yield, and is highly coveted (if you are interested in learning about earthworm husbandry the right way, click HERE). You can do this either on a small scale in your kitchen or on a larger scale and make it into a business. There are many ways you can make it profitable with minimal startup costs. The thing that vermicomposting and traditional composting have in common is the fact that they are both ways to help you reduce your food waste. The ways that you do them are very different, but they each help tackle the food waste issue.

After this amazing talk Mr. Zach Brooks, owner of the Arizona Worm Farm, talked to us about his dream that he built and made it into a reality. He was able to purchase land and begin his business where he sells "worm castings" (aka worm poop), vermicompost tea (NOT for drinking), and worms! (I found this podcast where he talks about his farm HERE). After his talk, we took a drive over to the farm. Here are some pictures from the day.

A Meeting With Culinary Staff

I'm proud to announce that we had a very wonderful meeting with the culinary staff on our campus!  Both Professor Zilkha and Professor Wilson not only were on board with our program but were outright excited to join forces with us to support our ongoing efforts to make our campus waste less and be more green!  Starting the week of January 28th, we will be collecting food waste from not only the cafeteria as per usual, but also the culinary classes in Pitkin AND in Ender Hall!  That's THREE pickups per day of food that would otherwise be put directly in the trash.  I know I don't only speak for myself when I say I am so happy and proud of all the people who want to help us and the opportunities we're opening up.  We still have a lot to do to, but this is a HUGE milestone in our goal of one day having our whole campus united under our campaign.  Go team!

- Mallory E.

Project Setbacks and Solutions

Unfortunately, we don't have any soil that we can use yet.  In fact, it appeared that our Rocket only wanted to spit out woodchips for us.  Luckily, we were able to get a man from Food Waste Experts (the sellers of The Rocket) to service our Rocket.

We now know how to properly work the rocket!

First off, a mysterious plug that was chewed up by a groundhog was important to the Rocket...  It powers the fan so that the excess gasses can be vented out.

We also found out that we need an equal part of woodchips for the food we put in.  Basically a one for one ratio.  We got some woodchips, however...  They're all wet.  So we need to get those all dry...

We also found out a "recipe" to "reset" the rocket.  Three times a day, we need to feed the rocket compost, food, and woodchips.  After this, the rocket should be ready to take food and woodchips to give us soil.

It appears that the two of us, along with the occasional student, do not make enough food for the Rocket to truly work.  The food is basically turning into dust inside the dry machine.

We have plans to fix this though!  We're making a call to action:  More food, and more often!  Every day we need a bunch of food, almost three times what we've been putting in just by ourselves.  We need a working woodchipper so we can get ourselves dry woodchips!  We need a hose for water access and to clean the drainer, we need a pitchfork and shovel for our piles, and we need a place to cure what the rocket spits out.

It feels as though we've taken one step forward and ten steps back, but I believe we can do it, all together, with the help of lots of people on campus!  We need food from everyone, and we need to recruit more people.  I believe with hard work, we can really get this going!