Presenter: Mr. John Darling of UT Arlington
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Mr. Darling gave us an interesting presentation on Composting. Compost is the product of aerobic decomposition of organic material. Organic material is anything that was ever alive.
UT Arlington currently uses only pre-consumer waste in its composting program. The University received a solid waste disposal grant of $130,000. With this money they purchased a Bobcat, a front end loader and installed a water line to aid in their composting program. Currently, the university recycles 100 tons per year through composting that would have gone to the landfill.
Statistics presented by Mr. Darling during his presentation:
- Approximately 122 pounds of food are thrown out each month by a family of 4.
- 1/3 of everything you buy ends up in the garbage.
- In Africa, up to 40% of food ends up as waste. This is a result of losses during production, storage, transport and distribution.
- The USA loses topsoil 10x faster than we can replenish it.
- New York City discovered that there was up to 47% of compostable trash in their landfills.
- In Disneyworld, their composting operation is up to 40 tons per day.
- TexDot uses 4 Million tons of compost annually. Much of this material is used to control erosion. It is also used in roadside planting beds.
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| Compost pile at Disneyworld |
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