RIDGWAY -ðStudents and faculty from the Ridgway School District
were commended for their part in helping to build a healthier and
stronger Pennsylvania with a partnership with Elk County and the
state Department of Environmental Protection.
Ridgway is the only school east of the Mississippi to operate an
on-campus, in-vessel composting program. The project has been
financed by $186,000 in recycling grants that DEP has issued to the
county to support the program since 2002.
“Our state is filled with people who have the creativity, drive
and spirit to build a very promising future for our commonwealth –
and at the top of that list are the best and brightest from right
here in the Ridgway School District,” DEP Secretary Kathleen
McGinty said during a tour of the school’s composting facility
Thursday morning.
In in-vessel composting, organic materials are fed into a drum,
silo, concrete-lined trench or similar equipment where the
environmental conditions, including temperature, moisture and
aeration, are closely controlled. The apparatus usually has a
mechanism to turn or agitate the material for proper aeration.
In-vessel composters vary in size and capacity.
State funding helped Ridgway develop the full operation. DEP
provided: $95,000 for the in-vessel composter and $31,000 to buy a
truck in 2002; $41,000 to build the housing unit in 2004; and
$19,000 for a tractor in 2005. The program became operational in
2005 and is processing cafeteria waste from all Ridgway
schools.
Students and faculty sort lunch waste after they eat and
generate 80 pounds of food waste daily, or 14,400 pounds annually.
The composter, located at Francis S. Grandinetti Elementary School,
helps to avoid landfill costs of $1,000 each year.
For every 80 pounds of food waste, 160 pounds of wood chips are
added to facilitate the breakdown of organic material. This enables
the operation to produce 27,000 pounds of compost annually. The
schools will save $2,700 a year in retail costs by avoiding the
need to buy soil amendments for school grounds.
Middle school and high school members of the Environmental
Awareness Team collect the waste at the cafeterias, transport it to
the composter, mix it with wood chips and then deposit it into the
composting unit, where it is mixed to begin a 30-day decomposition
cycle.
At the end of the 30-day cycle, the material is removed from the
composter and transported to windrows. Material that was placed in
the windrows last year is now ready to be sifted. The composted
materials will be deposited on the district’s cross-country track
as an alternative to chemical fertilizer and also for moisture
control.
“The district saw an opportunity to play a responsible role in
environmental protection by putting waste to use, rather than
throwing it away,” Ridgway School District Superintendent Gary
Elder said. “Besides potential savings on waste hauling and mulch,
we look at district-wide composting as an educational opportunity
for staff and students. We hope this operation can act as a
statewide, even national, model.”
Elder said Jeff Adams, the environmental team advisor, and his
students have “really taken ownership of this.”
“DEP made quite an investment and we’re trying to show the
return,” the superintendent said.
This was the first time an official of this stature has come to
see the fruits of the district’s labor.
“If you look at Ridgway and its location, we are keenly aware of
the environment,” Elder said. “We have a vested interest in
protecting the environment. We believe we should be a model for
other districts to follow.”
McGinty agreed they had a good start.
“What better way to educate young people about sustainability
than engaging them in a valuable learning process like this,”
McGinty said.
More than 30 percent of the waste going to landfills is yard
waste, food waste and other organic material that could become a
resource to innovative compost facilities.
Composting is a natural process. Microorganisms break down
organic materials such as leaves, grass and vegetable scraps,
forming a nutrient-rich soil enhancement called compost or humus.
Woody materials from yard waste can be used to create mulch for
beautifying landscapes or controlling weeds.
This is the third high-volume composter in northwestern
Pennsylvania. The two other units, also funded by DEP grants, serve
Allegheny College in Meadville as well as the Crawford County
Prison and County Care Center.
