Compost Site Unique to Macon, GA Could Soon Divert Millions of Pounds of Trash, Waste

SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): Macon is the home of a new compost facility, and hopefully by the end of the year, an adjacent recycling facility, making it the first and only of its kind in the state. Complete Resource Management’s Macon facility is designed to accept green waste such as tree debris, limbs and plant vegetation, along with food waste and industrial wood waste such as pallets and crates. These materials are composted into nutrient-rich soils and mulches used for gardening, farming and landscaping, according to CRM President Whitcomb Barnhill.

The facility has been operating for about a year as a Class 2 Compost Facility, which has limits on the type and volume of materials it’s able to accept, but the company is working to get a permit to operate a Materials Recovery Facility as well as a Class 4 Composting Facility, which has no limits on the volume of intake. The company plans to invest about $2.5 million in the facility, which includes land, building development and equipment, and the project is expected to create 25 new jobs locally, according to a news release from the local Industrial Authority.

“The MRF will allow us to bring in packaged food/beverage waste and run it through depackaging equipment in order to separate the organics from the packaging material,” Barnhill said in an email. “We can then recycle the organics in our Class 4 Composting operation and recycle the packaging waste separately.”

Courtesy: www.wasteadvantagemag.com