May 2, 2008
FOOD WASTE RECYCLING ARRIVES IN THURSTON COUNTY
"Food waste recycling arrives soon to curbside residential recycling programs in South Sound, thanks in large part to the success of a one-year-old organic waste composting plant in south Thurston County.
Beginning May 1, customers of LeMay Enterprises and its subsidiaries can place food waste and compostable paper from food products in their yard waste disposal bins for pickup, noted Terry Thomas, an education and outdoor specialist with Thurston County Solid Waste...
The materials collected will go to Silver Springs Organics [covered here last Fall], a state-licensed organic waste recycling center at 13911 Military Road S.E., Tenino.
There they will be mixed with yard and wood waste, ground into smaller-sized particles, then and allowed to cook and decompose in controlled, covered piles for 45 days to produce compost used for landscape projects, soil conditioning, erosion control and other projects, company manager Greg Schoenbachler said.
The finished product is safe to use on vegetable gardens and agricultural fields, Schoenbachler said. The company has an application pending with the state Department of Agriculture to label the compost certified organic so it can be sold to commercial organic farms, he said," quoting The Olympian.
"'Food Plus Recycling' is available countywide. For more information, call LeMay Enterprises at 486-8606," quoting the Thurston County Dept. of Water & Waste Mgt.
How can this composted material be entertained as a potential for a product labeled organic by the state of Washington for vegetable gardens and other projects? Composting brings temperatures to a "cooking" temperature, I have done it. To believe that grass.. though organic because it is alive and grows.. appears clean does not mean it has avoided Scott's turfbuilder in its lifetime! How would one know that tomato scraps from mainstream grocery stores, unlabeled, have not been bred with fish scales!
I require more, I require the truth.