In service of food waste recycling

Community Composting Operations

Elsa Higby, Project Manager NY Federation Conference May 21, 2019

MISSION

The NYC Compost Project, created by the NYC Department of Sanitation in 1993, works to rebuild NYC’s soils by providing New Yorkers with the knowledge, skills, and opportunities they need to produce and use compost locally.

Outreach

Making Compost

Organics Recovery

Program Areas

Education

NYC Compost Project Organics Intake

Activity Class Activity Type Weight of organics accepted (lbs)

Organics Intake 9190

Organics Intake Browns Acceptance 1,533,428

Organics Intake Delivery from Partner 1,164,652

Organics Intake Drop-Off Site 50,0299.5

Organics Intake Event Composting 5,810

Organics Intake Public SSO Station Maintenance 824,566

Total SSO (wet tons) = 1,252.6 Total Browns (tons) = 766.71

NYC Compost Project Organics Intake by Activity Type - July 2018 - April 2019

Making Compost in a densely populated area

4th largest business district in NYC

853 acres

72,008 persons

84.4 inhabitants per acre

Flushing, Queens

Queens Botanical Garden is an urban oasis where people, plants and cultures are celebrated through inspiring gardens, innovative educational programs and demonstrations of environmental stewardship.

Founded as part of the 1939 World’s Fair.

1. Woodchip & leaves from

◦ NYC Parks ▪ Packer trucks in the fall ▪ Event based leaf collection ▪ Wood chip year round

◦ Residential leaf waste ◦ Event based leaf collection “Leaf Crunch”

2. Food scrap drops offs operated by ◦ NYC Compost Project

▪ Residents ◦ Grow NYC

▪ Residents

Acquisition of feedstocks

Members of the public drop-off their food scraps Members of the public drop-off their compostables at Food Scrap Drop-Off Sites across NYC.

Processing We truck the compostables back to Queens Botanical Garden, where our team, and volunteers from the community make it in to compost by mixing it with wood chips, wood shavings, and leaves.

Technology and Process

Humans Pitchforks, shovels,

wheelbarrows, PVC, Koala blowers & timers Hose Thermometers Skidsteer Sitler Screener Dump truck

Weekly collection - ASP Phase 1 – ASP, pads A & B Phase 2 – Turned, pads C & D Phase 3 - Curing

Approximately4000 ft2

Weekly Collection: 1500 lbs per week, 6000 total.

PAD A: 6000 + 5000 lbs | Clock restart

PAD B: Pad A materials re-homogenized, watered and placed back on pipe, no bio-filter.

SCALING TOOLS TO YOUR NEEDS: TOOLS: Each session begins with a safety talk. TOTERS: small, no more than 32 gls MIXING: In long low beds and no more than 18 inches high. NO MACHINES: Means no noise and time to share stories and learn from each other while working.

PAD A: 45 yards of materi with a bio-filter and compo cover. Blower is set for 2 m on, 30 minutes off. 3.5 we residency.

Distribution

Compost is given to the public to demonstrate the closed loop system of recycling organics to make compost that they are putting back into the soil to grow food and other plants.

Giveback events for residents (bag or bucket your own)

NYC Parks: New grass plantings, field remediation, existing beds and new beds

QBG Farm

Street tree care

Flushing Meadows Corona Park, lawn remediation

Beautification at Veterans Grove Park Partnership for Parks Elm Church NYC Compost Project Hosted by QBG

FY 2019 • 210,000 lbs or 105 tons of NYC organics from landfills

◦ 120,000 lbs of food scraps ◦ 90,000 lbs of wood chip and leaves

• Approximately 52.5 tons or 105,000 lbs of compost. • All of it is given back to the community

FY 2018 – Primary Value (engaging residents through outreach & education) • 39 volunteer processing workdays (3 hour events) • 92 outreach activities (street tree care, beautification, tabling, distribution, etc) • 25 composting workshops • 8223 lbs of produce harvested from our farm • 20 Master Composters

What does this amount too?

Compost Corridor, a public space where critical education and operations in support of Zero Waste meet the goals of OneNYC by reducing the waste of NYC residents and producing a high quality compost.

Compost Corridor

8 feet depth

8 feet width 8 width, 8’ depth, 7’ high: 448 cu ft. or 16.6 cu yards

7 feet height

Examples of different dimension bays and their respective capacities.

9’ width, 9’ depth, 6’ high: 486 cu ft. or 18 cu yards

8’ width, 9’ depth, 6’ high: 432

cu ft. or 16 cu yards

Sizing the ASP system This site will be developed to process up to 36,000 lbs of food waste per month. The true intake capacity will depend on the amount of carbon utilized in the feedstock mix.

We will, for the purposes of this paper, utilize a theoretical Carbon to Food waste recipe of 2 parts carbon to 1 part food waste.

Processing with enclosed aerated static pile and turned windrow For NYCCP Hosted by QBG

Woodchip/overs biofilter

Compost feedstock

Woodchip plenum

64’

8’

ASP bays sized 8’ X 8’ X 7’ have a capacity of 448 cu ft, or 16.6 cu. yards. The actual feedstock capacity must take into consideration a woodchip plenum layer and a bio-filter layer to deter pests and capture odor. Thus a bin with a 16.6 cu yard capacity has a actual capacity of approximately 14 yards. Utilizing our Carbon to Food Waste recipe of 2:1 by vol- ume we can determine that one ASP bay sized at 8’ X 8’ X 7’ has a capacity of 4.5 yards of food waste or roughly 4,500 lbs. 8 such bays will give us a capacity of 9,000 lbs of food waste per week, if the materials are allowed to compost in the bays for 4 weeks.

~1 yard Feedstock capacity:

~14 cu. yards

~1.5 yard

Total Capacity

16.6 yards

Bay 1 Bay 2 Bay 3 Bay 4 Bay 5 Bay 6 Bay 7 Bay 8

60

9.8

4.3

9.8’

Windrow Cross-section

Sizing the Windrow Pad Utilizing a specific windrow turner, the Backhus A30, the windrow dimensions as per manufacturer specifications will be 4.3 feet height and 9.8 feet width. To calculate windrow capacity we measure windrow height X windrow width X 2/3 X windrow length. Applying this formula we find that each 60 foot long windrow pad will have a capacity as follows:

4.3ft X 9.8ft X 2/3 X 60= 1,685.6 cu. ft., or 62.43 cu yards

Examples of different length pads and their respective volume capacity:

60’ pad

4.3ft X 9.8ft X 2/3 X 60= 1,685.6 cu. ft., or 62.43 cu yards

80 ‘ pad

4.3ft X 9.8ft X 2/3 X 80= 2224 cu. ft., or 82 cu yards

100’ pad

4.3ft X 9.8ft X 2/3 X 100= 2781 cu. ft., or 103 cu yards

Week 2:

Bays 3 & 4 (14 cubic yards each bay, total of 28 yards) filled with mixed feedstock

Week 3:

Bays 5 & 6 (14 cubic yards each bay, total of 28 yards) filled with mixed feedstock

Week 4:

Bays 7 & 8 (14 cubic yards each bay, total of 28 yards) filled with mixed feedstock

and

Bays 1 &2 are emptied. Materials in Bays 1 & 2 have been composting in the ASP for 1 month, and are ready to be placed on the windrow pad. The volume of these materials has decreased by at least 20%, to approx. 22 yards.

Week 1:

Bays 1 & 2 (14 cubic yards each bay, total of 28 yards) filled with mixed feedstock

1 2

ASP SYSTEM: material flow

1 2

3 4

5 6

7 8

Pad 1 Pad 2

Turned Windrow: materials flow After coming out of the ASP, two bays’ worth of materials are consolidated into 1 batch and placed onto the windrow. Each such batch is represented by a green square. Total volume has decreased from 28 yards (combined volume for two ASP bays) to approx. 22 yards (minimum of 20% volume reduction).

Four 60 foot pads: Each 60 foot windrow pad will fit 62.43 cubic yards of materials, allowing 3 weekly batches to fit on each pad. The following flow demonstrates how materials can be removed and added to the pads allowing the materials to remain on the pad for 10 to 12 weeks before being removed and placed in a curing area.

Weeks 5-16

Every week, a 22 yard batch of feed- stocks is added to the windrow system, Pad’s 1—4. The materials are turned at regular intervals via tractor and wind- row turner.

After a pad is filled with 3 weeks worth of materials it is treated as a consoli- dated batch and will be removed all at once.

wk7

wk6

wk5

Pad 3

wk10

wk9

wk8

wk13

wk12

wk11

Wk16

wk15

wk14

Pad 4

Week 16

Pad 2 Pad 3

Week 17 Week 18 Week 19

On Week 16 a final 22 cubic yard batch placed onto Pad 4

All of pad 1 is moved to the curing area after all mate- rials have spent a mini- mum of 10 weeks under turned man- agement.

Additionally, a fresh batch from the ASP is placed on the top posi- tion of Pad 1.

For week 19 we see the continuation of this rotation; the next 3 oldest batches (all of Pad 2) are moved to the curing pad and fresh materials are added to the windrow, one week at a time for 3 weeks.

Pad 1

wk10

wk9

wk8

wk13

wk12

wk11

wk15

Wk16

wk14

Pad 4 Curing 1

The curing pad will not be turned with the turner, so can handle double if not triple the material using height.

Pad 1 Curing 1

Pad 1

Four 60 ft pads Utilizing 4 pads that are 60 feet long, we have a capacity to manage 249.72 cu yards at any given time (62.43 x 4 = 249.72 cu yards). In 52 weeks we will have the capacity to process approximately 1144 cu yards of material (22 yards x 52 weeks), resulting in yards of compost per year .

Week 5

Pad 1

Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9

Week 11 Week 10 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14

Week 15 Week 16 Week 17 Week 18

Week 19 Week 21

Week 22 Week 23 Week 24

5 5 5

5 5

Week 20

Week 22 Week 23 Week 24

Technology and Process

Humans Pitchforks, shovels,

wheelbarrows, PVC, blowers & timers Skidsteer Backhus A30 compost turner Hose Dump truck Thermometers

Phase 1 - ASP Bay System - 9000 lbs per week

- 4 weeks residency Phase 2 - Turned windrows - 10 to 12 week residency Phase 3 - Curing

Thank you!

Elsa Higby

Project Manager ehigby@queensbotanical.org