Composting of Paper Towels

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Composting of Paper Towels

• Angela, Ben, Brandon and Pete

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What is Composting?

• Breaking down Organic Material
• Food
• Paper products
• Bacteria and microbes
• Used as a natural fertilizer

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Benefits

• Organic Matter
• Improves Soil
• Protects against soil erosion
• Adds beneficial Microbes

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Landfills

• 210 million tons of trash generated in the United
  States annually
• 56 million tons is either recycled or composted
• The remaining 154 million tons is discarded
• made up of mostly paper products, plastics, and
  wood
• Trash is buried and slowly decomposes
• Toxic chemicals can contaminate water sources
  (leachate)
• Methane and CO2 are emitted gasses
• Aesthetically Unpleasing

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McConnells Mill State Park

• 2002
• Inactive Landfill near McConnells Mill State Park
• It was shut down because of severe environmental
  conditions existing at the site
• Steam Pollution
• Methane (Global Warming)
• Operator faced criminal charges on 4 counts of
  illegally dumping contaminated water into
  Slippery Rock Creek.
• The same operator submitted a new permit
  application to open a new residual waste landfill
  some 1000 feet from the Kildoo Picnic Area on
  McConnell's Mill Road!
• Fortunately it was denied.

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What we do trash

• 70,000 is spend annually on trash disposal
• Of this, 750 pounds of this trash is paper towels
• That is 2,600 rolls of paper towels annually at
  8 a roll
• All of our trash goes to a landfill in Slippery
  Rock
• 1200 1500 lbs. trash per day

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What we do compost

• Allegheny has been composting since 2001
• We compost food, leaves, and woodchips
• 800-900 pounds of food is composted daily
• Once the composted material is ready, it is used
  a fertilizer, made into topsoil, or tea
• All composted material is used on campus
• 250,000 composter

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Composting paper towels
Why not?
Why?

• Collection
• Clogging

• Money
• Moisture

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-Allegheny College became the first college or
university in Pennsylvania to install an
on-campus composting facility. Their composting
unit is one of only a handful of such units in
the northeastern region of the U.S.
-Pennsylvania is a leader in preparing
students for environmental careers. Ten percent
of the Environmental Studies programs in the
United States are located on Pennsylvania
campuses.
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-Culinary Schools are a leader in composting
because of all the food scraps they produce.
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