Mark Goddard, Little River Compost (Lisbon, ME)—Following his attendance at the first ever Maine Compost School session (June 1997), Mark decided to develop a municipal sewage sludge composting operation capable of processing 4,800 cubic yards per year. Mark chose to use the “static aerated pile” methodology within a freestanding building. After several successful years of sludge composting, Mark decided to go organic and completely switched to composting animal manures and seafood residuals. He currently composts 3,500 cubic yards of these materials annually, and produces a bagged product that is in high demand. He, also, proudly serves as one of our field trip stops during the regular school sessions.
Cam Weimar,Amend Organics(Amherst, Massachusetts)—A 2011 graduate of the Maine Compost School program, Cam has hit the ground running by offering a complete “closed-loop” system for organics recovery by providing source separation education, collection and transport, compost production and final marketing and sales of the finished product through local advertisement and it’s impressive website. Amend Organics began composting efforts in October of 2012, and currently, has more than 600 cubic yards of organics in several working compost windrows. The company has also amassed an impressive collection of equipment, including: a trailer with a 10,000 lbs. payload for collection, a stake-bed dump truck, and a kubota 46 horse-power tractor for mixing, building and turning compost windrows. The company also dabbles in vermicomposting. In 2013, Amend Organics produced approximately 900 pounds of vermi-compost. That material will be bagged and sold during the 2014 growing season.
Kimberly Truskowski, Sugarloaf Composting(Carrabassett Valley)—Another graduate of the October 1997 session, Kimberly hit the ground running; approaching all of the food-related business located on the mountain resort to collect food scraps for composting. All groups within the community readily accepted her proposal, and her efforts resulted in a grant from the State Planning Office to initiate a Pilot Food Compost Operation. Starting with buckets and 2 Green MountainTM “Earth Tub” in-vessel units, the program has continued to succeed and grow—adding an additional “Earth Tub”. Last year, Sugarloaf reported that they diverted nearly 100 tons of organic materials from landfilling.
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