Organic Waste A Great Source For Composting
Author : Mike Selvon
Certainly there is a good deal of discussion and concern nowadays about organic products and also about defining the meaning of the term organic waste Essentially, it is the byproduct of any material that is biological in origin Common types of such waste includes virtually all paper products, including newspapers and cardboard; food waste; green waste material which encompasses yard and garden waste; animal manure and feces; and various biosolids and sludge components
The process that organic matter goes through to become waste is called composting The composting process breaks down the microorganisms in the organic material through a combination of exposure to heat, moisture, oxygen and bacteria Once this organic material has passed through this decomposing process, it can be reused as a very effective soil additive
In many ways, organic waste is a valuable part of the process of life on this planet In essence, composting of organic materials is the original, and most effective form of recycling, invented and perfected by Mother Nature herself
Once organic materials are gathered together in a compost pile, the microorganisms rapidly increase in number and essentially grow into a community that “colonizes” the composter Through the natural biological functions of the microorganisms, the organic components are systematically broken down and the result is a nutrient rich compost
As the bacterial microorganisms grow, they assimilate the starches, sugars and organic acids found in the waste matter A side effect of their activity is a rise in the temperature in the center-most portion of the compost heap Eventually, the temperature of the core of the compost pile will reach more than 140 degrees Fahrenheit and this heat contributes to the escalating decomposition of the material
When the busy bacteria have consumed all of the sugars and starches and other materials they feast upon, the interior temperature of the compost heap begins to fall As the temperatures become lower, other kinds of microorganisms, such as fungi, become more dominant in the composting community At this stage the waste is considered to be stabilizing but there are still biological activities going on which will affect the woody elements of the compost mixture, allowing them to be broken down as well
In order to continue through the composting process, the compost heap needs to be turned This is a simple process that brings the material that is on the edges of the heap into the center so that it can be exposed to this process of heating as described above It is recommended to allow the compost pile to sit undisturbed for approximately two weeks between turnings
A compost heap can continue to grow by adding additional organic waste at any time The compost pile simply needs to be turned at regular intervals of about every other week and the decomposition process will continue In four to six months the composting process will have done its work and the compost can be mixed in with the soil as a very effective fertilizer
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Syndication Source: Article Wild
Tagged with: Composting
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The US EPA and waste industry are promoting the landspreading of Class B sewage sludge containing infectious human and animal prions on grazing lands, hay fields, and dairy pastures. This puts livestock and wildlife at risk of infection. They ingest large quantities of dirt and top dressed sludge with their fodder.
Prion infected Class A sludge “biosolids” compost is spread in parks, playgrounds, home lawns, flower and vegetable gardens – putting humans, family pets, and children with their undeveloped immune systems and hand-to-mouth “eat dirt” behavior at risk. University of Wisconsin prion researchers, working with $100,000 EPA grant and a $5 million Dept. of Defense grant, have found that prions become 680 times more infectious in certain types of soil. Prions can survive for over 3 years in soils. And human prions are 100,000 times more difficult to inactivate than animal prions
Recently, researchers at UC Santa Cruz, and elsewhere, announced that Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a prion disease. “Prion” = proteinaceous infectious particle which causes always fatal TSEs (Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies) in humans and animals including BSE (Mad Cow Disease), scrapie in sheep and goats, and Chronic Wasting Disease in deer, elk and moose. Human prion diseases are AD and CJD (Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease,) and other rarer maladies. Infectious prions have been found in human and animal muscle tissue including heart, saliva, blood, urine, feces and many other organs.
Alzheimer’s rates are soaring as Babyboomers age – there are now over 5.3 million AD victims in US shedding infectious prions in their blood, urine and feces, into public sewers. This Alzheimer’s epidemic has almost 500,000 new victims each year. No sewage treatment process inactivates prions – they are practically indestructible. The wastewater treatment process reconcentrates the infectious prions in the sewage sludge.
Quotes from Dr. Joel Pedersen, Univ. of Wisconsin, on his prion research:
”
Our results suggest that if prions were to enter municipal waste water treatment systems, most of the agent would partition to activated sludge solids, survive mesophilic anaerobic digestion, and be present in
treated biosolids. Land application of biosolids containing prions could represent a route for their unintentional introduction into the environment. Our results argue for excluding inputs of prions to municipal wastewater treatment.”
“Prions could end up in wastewater treatment plants via slaughterhouse drains, hunted game cleaned in a sink, or humans with vCJD shedding prions in their urine or faeces, Pedersen says”
(Note – This UW research was conducted BEFORE UCSC scientists determined that Alzheimer’s Disease is another prion disease which may be shedding infectious prions into public sewers and Class B and Class A sludge “biosolids.)
Helane Shields, Alton, NH 03809
http://www.sludgevictims.com/pathgens/prions-composting.html
http://www.sludgevictims.com/pathogens/prion.html
You may be misleading your readers by calling contaminated wastes, such as biosolids and other sludges ‘organic’. Any waste can be called organic if it contains carbon atoms. Sludges contain not only human fecal matter, but also thousands of industrial chemicals, many of which are hazardous and persistent and most of which are not regulated. Every month every industry, business, and institution can legally discharge 33 pounds of hazardous waste into sewage treatment plants. Here these pollutants are removed from the treated waste water and concentrate in the resulting sludge.
Certified organic produce can not be grown on land treated with sludge. Major food processing companies, such as Heinz and DelMonte do not accept produce grown on sludged land. Your readers should be warned not grow vegetables using sludge compost. For more information see http://www.sludgefacts.org