New Composting Facility At Ohio Correctional Institution

London Correctional Institution (LoCI) in London, Ohio partnered with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the North Central Ohio Solid Waste Management District (NCO-SWMD), and GoZero to create a Class II Composting Facility licensed to accept food, yard, agricultural, and animal waste. Ohio EPA has been working with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to help it redevelop former farm buildings into composting facilities and training centers. The first project is at the Allen-Oakwood Correctional Institution in Lima. LoCI is the second, and will divert more than 310 tons annually of the Institution’s food waste from the landfill. The aerated static pile facility has capacity for 50,000 to 55,000 tons annually of organics, including feedstocks from outside sources. It will be receiving 150 tons/day of food waste from the Columbus region, as well as servicing the Cincinnati and Dayton areas; the goal is to be a resource for the entire region, notes LoCI. The operation will provide 6 to 10 offenders with employable skills, and save the state more than $25,000 a year in food disposal costs.

CalRecycle Adopts Mandatory Composting Services Regulations

On Jan. 21, the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) adopted the formal regulations to implement SB 1383, the Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Strategy. SB 1383 holds CalRecycle responsible for reducing organic waste disposal by 75% and recovering 20% of edible food that is currently thrown away by 2025. Local governments and generators will be required to compost, anaerobically digest, or otherwise recycle food scraps, yard trimmings, and other organic waste by providing curbside organics collection services to residents and businesses, and to minimize food waste from businesses such as grocery stores, event venues and restaurants. They will also be required to procure organic waste products such as compost and mulch. The regulations go into effect by 2022.
BIOCYCLE CONNECT 2020 WEST Conference, March 30-April 2, 2020 in Sacramento, California, features a number of sessions and Deep Dive Discussions (Tuesday, March 31 & Wednesday, April 1) on SB 1383 requirements, tools to assist with compliance, edible food recovery strategies and plenty of case studies. BIOCYCLE CONNECT 2020 WEST builds in time for peer-to-peer learning, exchange of lessons learned and next steps, and networking. Models developed for franchise agreements, rate setting, food recovery, compliance and more are useful tools for organics recycling professionals in, and beyond, California.