Composting Is Cool
What do the Jacob Javits Center in New York City, the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, Wegmans grocery stores, Destiny USA (the largest mall in Central NY), and 7,000 school students all have in common? They each are part of a unique composting program in Camillus, NY – just west of Syracuse in Onondaga County, where a “new recipe for recycling” is underway at the Onondaga County Resource Recover Agency’s (OCRRA’s) Amboy Compost Facility.
Composting is the process of turning food scraps and other organic materials into a nutrient-rich soil amendment that helps flowers and plants flourish. At the Amboy facility, food scraps from local grocery stores, restaurants, schools, universities, and local residents, are combined with shredded yard waste to create a high quality compost.
Traditionally, composting is a lengthy process, requiring a lot of mixing and churning. But at OCRRA’s Amboy facility, a series of programmed blowers create optimal oxygen rich conditions for decomposition. The compost is ready in just 90 days – which is much quicker than the typical process.
Through this state-of-the-art technology, OCRRA has created an award-winning model for sustainability that is being replicated in other communities in New York State and beyond. The facility composts over 4,000 tons of food scraps annually, and now produces over 10,000 yards of compost each year, helping Onondaga County’s 450,000 residents achieve a 57% recycling rate. This impressive feat makes OCRRA’s Amboy site the largest municipal food scrap recovery program in New York State, and the only municipal program in NY producing compost certified by the U.S. Composting Council’s Seal of Testing Assurance program.
OCRRA’s compost is in high demand, and has been used in green infrastructure projects across the state, including Syracuse’s Rosamond Gifford Zoo, on the green roof at the Javits Convention Center in NYC, on a habitat restoration project on Onondaga Lake, and in a highway embankment project in southern New York. OCRRA’s bagged compost can also be purchased at over 30 locations throughout the community. If you live in this area and want to deliver food scraps to OCRRA’s Amboy Compost Facility or purchase their STA-certified compost, visit www.ocrra.org/services/compost.
OCRRA also offers compost-related programming, including: master composter training classes; compost education and training to local businesses and schools; personal guidance and assistance to home composters seeking to recycle their own food waste with worms; and an award-winning online educational learning program aimed at 3rd - 5th graders. Learn more at https://ocrra.org/services/education-program/.
Grants from the Environmental Protection Fund’s Municipal Waste Reduction and Recycling Program helped support the Amboy facility’s development and construction costs, as well as the purchase of heavy equipment to operate the facility. To learn more about this program visit: http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/4776.html.