I also work for a non-profit in the Bay Area.

We do two things -- we have compost dumpster that we pay for, and at one of our locations, we have a little garden with a cold compost pile.

If you are already paying for trash removal, you may wish to look into compost pickup. You might be able to get a smaller trash dumpster.

I know that's not answering the question you asked, but I thought you might be interested in seeing how another organization deals with this issue.

my question i guess is: how is this possible? what are they doing that speeds the process up so much?

Lisa,
Yes by taking out the 'green' from the garbage we are going to half the trash pick up which will save considerable $
Ive looked at Chabot college's program and a couple of others, they all are doing good things for the enviroment and each one is a little different. We will be able to use most if not all of the compost we generate as we have about 140 acres here and can use any left over compost as mulch for our tree's and such.
B-ski the decomposers subject the green waste to about 180 degree heat and it is tumbled around non for the 18 hours, reducing the volume and weight by 90%, all it requires is electricity and a drain. I'm just trying to do some research and try and find out how good the finished product is :o)

I've heard it mentioned before anything above 160 degrees in detrimental to the compost, but I could be wrong.

One of the objectives for the majority of us in composting is to do so with the least energy input possible. Developing a composter that requires electrical inputs, while somewhat interesting, is not something we would be interested in long term. What would be the purpose of using non renewable energy to produce a soil amendment that can be produced without that non renewable resource.

Have you found out what kind of price they get for those While I agree with Kimmsr electrical inputs for a home composter would be wastefull a commercial outfit needs something like this to make composting and waste reduction viable
I wonder if there are any gov't grants for investing in waste reduction equipment

Jonas, they don't come cheap, about 25K for the 150kg model, and yes there are several grant possibilities, Federal, State and local that I'm looking into, this one is obviously too big for home usage.
I'm just trying to find anyone with first hand experiance with using them, because as I see it taking 45 tons per year of green waste out of the landfills is good for everyone.

Forgive me for being blunt, but this seems like a really questionable use of resources.

Yes, and if you have an acre, you should consider devoting about 10% of the space to composting all that, outdoors in windrows. If you got a continuous/batch system going, you'd have a constant supply of finished compost after a few months of operating. You could use it for soil amendment as well as mulch after things were growing. If you have too much give it to the volunteers or sell it by the bag for operating funds.

You'll need some browns though, you might want to develop a source of sawdust, wood chips or something like that.

Keep us posted, this is a great project.

It sounds like it's primarily a big dehydrator.

Space we have, I'm looking at an area close to the garden to store/mix the finished product with our backloader, I can use the sawdust from our wood shop and we are going to eliminate all plastic and styrofoam to compostable items of the same which should help as we use a lot of that stuff.
I'm also eyeballing the next door horse farms piles for some more good stuff.

Let me get this straight, just to make sure I understand... you have a virtual endless supply of sawdust right next to an endless supply of horse manure?!

It sounds like compost nirvana.

Quite yer - braggin' and start composting!

I have a friend who lives in the bay area, she is a compost expert and an accountant. I think you should hire her to be your accountant and compost supervisor.

Start reading up on large scale composting, with that kind of volume you're going to want long windrows you can easily turn. As one's cooking you build the next one by adding new material to the end of the pile each day.

They even make windrow turner machines, but that might be overkill for you. A front loader could handle it.

No we have a modest wood shop that will supply a little 'dust' no great quantities of it. I'm hoping the compostable dinnerware will supply enough brown to even out the high N.
I have been reading up a little on composting on a larger scale but I'm way to small to even contemplate windrow turners. The thing I really like about the decomposers is I can put the finished product straight into the ground and not need to ferment it. So it will be a little trial by error until we get it down.

250 lb per day, that's 3/4 ton per week. Probably too much for hand turning but I agree probably too small for a windrow turner. But a HUGE amount of diversion from the landfill. This will be so great if you can get it going.

Dinnerware? We talking a restaurant then? I was unsure when you said "non-profit" what the operation was exactly. Are there meat and bones etc. in the waste? Not a show-stopper but potentially something requiring special handling techniques.

I'm not sure I'd call this final product 'compost'. Looking at their website (and it isn't very informative) it appears they are either 'cooking to dehydrate' or 'liquefying to pump out' the waste.

While these units may be beneficial in some circumstances (weight reduction for disposal for example), I wouldn't call it composting.

It almost reminds me of making dry dog food, add a whole bunch of waste ingredients, add a few vitamins, cook and press into bitty pieces.

Having said that, I have never seen one nor heard of anyone using one so I could be full of crap. :-)

Lloyd

I don't see how it could possibly decompose much of anything in 18 hrs. It does look like a dehydrator. Now, the stuff that comes out of it, you could compost, since it appears to chip and shred. They make something for commercial kitchen sinks that chops everything like a disposer, but has a screen that catches it so it doesn't plug up the drains. That kind of material would be great for composting. Also, you don't have to worry about most pests. Animals don't seem interested if everything is chipped into bits.

Its a retirement community (CCRC) we serve about 1000 meals per day and yes there is meat and bones in the waste, apparently everything but large beef bones goes into the hopper along with the veggies and stuff and as I said earlier the finished product comes out looking like dried brown coffee grounds.
Its funny last year we started a compost pile by shredding with a chipper our corn stalks and leaves it was quite a pile from approx 1/4 acre, the next day there wasn't anything left! it was all eaten by? we reckon deer and/or pigs, so everthing we do must be fenced in or I'm just fattening up my emergency food supply.

You'll need a supply of browns. Leaves are in supply right about now, but those are seasonal. Shredded paper is another brown. Cardboard, wood chips.

If there is a tree service who would tip wood chips on your acre garden site, that would be helpful, but those wood chips would probably need to be chipped again into a smaller size.

There are chipper/shredders with screens that can do the job. Mackissic makes a few models that could resize the chips into something that would compost. Considering the volume, I'd opt for one of the 18 hp models. Not cheap, but perhaps the savings from not having to haul the food waste away would pay it off.

Of course, someone would have to work on that compost on a continual basis. It will take some time and experimentation to learn how to compost with your particular combination of materials. We can offer suggestions, but because local conditions vary so much, you, or whoever becomes the compost engineer, will have to be your own expert.

I wouldn't till this into the soil, but rather spread it on the surface of the soil. In a couple of years, the soil will turn brown and crumbly if you continue to add compost.

Keep the garden soil mulched. Don't let it be exposed to weather. Exposure to weather is what will make it hard and compact.

Here's a link to the Mackissic site. Crary also make shredder with screens, but I like my Mackissic 12P.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mackissic hammermill shredders.