By FRANK CARINI/ecoRI staff

Red wigglers do an excellent job of composting food scraps.KINGSTON — Sejal Lanterman has kept worms under her kitchen sink, and currently has some in the basement and at the office. She believes every classroom should feature a bin of worms, and she spends the occasional Sunday relaxing by separating home and/or office worms from their castings.

“Worms are great for classrooms,” said Lanterman, the composting and recycling program manager for the University of Rhode Island’s College of the Environment and Life Sciences. “They’re a great learning tool, and they get kids to eat healthier. The kid who comes in with a bag of Doritos can’t feed the worms anything because all he has is garbage. The kid who comes in with a banana has the peel to feed to the worms.”

Lanterman keeps and feeds red wigglers because these small worms generate vermicompost, a heterogeneous mixture of decomposing food waste, worm castings (worm manure) and bedding materials — damp shredded newspaper and coconut coir work best. This nutrient-rich mixture reduces the need for fertilizer and is an excellent plant food.

This worm-based composting set-up also reduces the amount of waste that is unnecessarily buried at the Central Landfill in Johnston, since red wigglers enjoy dining on a variety of food scraps. Except for citrus, worms will eat all kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables. They’ll also feed on pet hair, coffee grinds, tea bags and eggshells.

A pound of red wigglers will eat between 1.5 and 2 pounds of food scraps a week.

The Kathleen M. Mallon Outreach Center keeps a blue bin of them, and the worm castings produced are used to feed the center’s many indoor plants. Interns do most of the separating of the worms from their castings, unless of course, Lanterman needs to relax.

An open compost pile needs the right balance between green (nitrogen) and brown (carbon) materials to keep the microorganisms healthy and hungry.Worms, however, are just one way of composting household and/or office food scraps. A compost pile is a good way to keep organic waste out of the state landfill. The key to managing such a pile, Lanterman said, is making sure you get the recipe right. She recommends sticking to a ratio of three parts brown (carbon) — leaves, straw, corn and tomato stalks, newspaper and cardboard, wood chips and pine needles — to one part green (nitrogen) — fruit and vegetable scraps, non-diseased expired plants, manure, coffee grinds, tea bags and chemical-free grass clippings.

Don’t compost meat, bones, fat, grease, oils, peanut butter, dairy products, cooked foods with sauces and butter, dog and cat feces, cat litter, diseased plants and weeds.

“A lot of people compost but not in the right way,” Lanterman said. “That’s still good, but it just takes longer to create good compost — two to three years instead of nine to twelve months.”

The right balance also helps neutralize unwanted odors and keeps curious animals, such as skunks and raccoons, away.

If, for example, your compost pile has too much nitrogen-rich green material, it will become sludgy, stinky — a rotten eggs-like smell — and the microorganisms that break down the waste will lack an energy source, which is provided by carbon-rich debris. An excellent brown source is shredded or torn-up newspaper, which features soy-based ink.

To avoid this problem, Lanterman recommends keeping a bin of brown material next to your compost pile, to provide coverage anytime green material is added. She also said composters should infuse their piles with oxygen up to three times a week, with a pitchfork, shovel, metal bar or compost aerator.

“Learning to blend materials together is the art of composting,” said Lanterman, who likes to experiment more than most. She routinely maintains four or five compost piles — each contained in a three-sided structure made of wood pallets — in her backyard. She said two works best for most people, though.

Compost bins come in all shapes and sizes.For those who live in more urban settings, an enclosed bin is a better option. You can compost in almost anything, from a specially designed contraptions to a trash barrel poked with holes.

And for those without access to a yard and not interested in sharing inside space with worms, indoor composters are available. URI’s Kathleen M. Mallon Outreach Center uses a NatureMill compost bin. They cost about $200 and use 50 cents of energy a month, according to Lanterman.

“We throw our leftover Chinese food and moldy stuff we find in the refrigerator right into it,” said Lanterman, who advises against throwing leftover take-out food into an outdoor compost pile or bin. “It can compost almost anything, except peach and avocado pits.”

Sejal Lanterman is conducting a free composting workshop Tuesday, June 15, from 6-8 p.m. at the Roger Williams Park Botanical Center in Providence. URI’s College of the Environment and Life Sciences Outreach Center and the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation also offer a “Master Composter & Recycler Program.” For more information, send an e-mail to sejal@uri.edu or visit www.uri.edu/cels/ceoc.

By FRANK CARINI/ecoRI staff

Latex-based paint cans are recyclable; oil-based paint cans are not. (Frank Carini/ecoRI staff)JOHNSTON — Rhode Island’s 39 cities and towns are required to bring their trash to the Central Landfill. Municipalities pay $32 per ton of garbage buried in the 210-acre landfill, but pay nothing for recyclables.

Improperly discarded items cost taxpayers money, unnecessarily take up dwindling space in the ever-shrinking landfill — it could reach its full capacity within 20 years — and taint the value of what is recyclable.

To help clear up confusion regarding what can be recycled and where, ecoRI sat down with Sarah Kite, director of recycling services for the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation (RIRRC), which runs the state landfill, to discuss issues that generate the most questions and items that cause the biggest problems.

Green bin: For recyclable paper and cardboard products, such as cereal boxes, newspapers, telephone books, magazines, shopping bags and egg cartons. Items that don’t belong in this bin end up buried in the landfill.

Blue bin: For recyclable bottles and cans, aluminum pie plates, metal clothes hangers, orange juice cartons, soup cans and metal bottle caps. Items that don’t belong in this bin end up buried in the landfill.

Plastic numbers: The digits (1-7) listed on all plastics designate the type, instead of using their “insane” chemical names. There is virtually no market for plastics Nos. 3-7, which is the main reason why RIRRC doesn’t recycle those items.

The triangle: Is just a frame for the number, to make it standout. It doesn’t mean that piece of plastic is recyclable.

Plastics Nos. 1 & 2: All plastic bottles and jugs that have smaller necks than bodies are recyclable. They need to be placed in the blue recycling bin. No. 1 and No. 2 plastics that are not recyclable include Dunkin’ Donuts Coolatte cups and deli containers.

Plastics Nos. 3-7: State law only requires the Resource Recovery Corporation to accept recyclables that it can market. These five types of plastics, at the moment, have little to no market value. PVC, a No. 6 plastic, for example, has no market since it is difficult to remanufacture. By June 30, 2013, at the latest, the Resource Recovery Corporation will begin recycling some of these plastics.

Yogurt, Cool Whip and sour cream containers: They are No. 5 plastics, and are not accepted as recyclables by the Resource Recovery Corporation. They can be brought to Whole Foods Markets, which has them recycled.

Plastics bags: They are recyclable, but they must be brought to chain supermarkets and drug stores, such as Stop & Shop, Whole Foods, CVS and Walgreens, and placed in the blue box at the entrance. They don’t have to be returned to the store from which they came. Many of them will be used to make a wood/plastic mix for decking. Rhode Island was the first state to adopt an in-store recycling program for plastic bags. Ziplock bags and plastic that wraps meat are not accepted.

Wine bottles: All wine bottles, no matter their color, are recyclable and need to be placed in the blue recycling bin.

Glass jars: Recyclable and must be placed in the blue recycling bill. Lightly rinse out the jar and throw the lid in the trash. There’s no local market for glass bottles and jars, which are on the state Department of Environmental Management’s list of mandatory recyclables, so the Resource Recovery Corporation grins these items up and includes them in a mix of organic, inorganic and inert — such as glass cullet — material that is used daily to cover the landfill.

Tempered glass, broken glass and light bulbs: Not recyclable and should be placed in the trash bin.

Plastic bottle caps: Are a different kind of plastic than the recyclable bottles they cover. Throw them in the trash; if they are left on the bottle, they contaminate the recyclable plastic and lower its value.

Labels: Unlike the inaugural days of recycling, labels on recyclable items do not need to be peeled off.

Laundry detergent bottles: Are recyclable and need to be placed in the blue recycling bin.

Junk mail: Recyclable and needs to be placed in the green recycling bin.

Shredded paper: Recyclable and needs to be placed in the green recycling bin.

Hypodermic needles: Need to be placed in an empty plastic container or jug, such as a bleach or detergent bottle. When full, close the bottle with the cap, then seal the cap to the bottle with strong tape, such as duct tape. Place the full, sealed jug in the trash; never in a recycling bin.

Hazardous household and electronic waste: The Resource Recovery Corporation holds various Eco-Depot events throughout the year. It is a free service for Rhode Island residents who wish to dispose of their household hazardous waste properly. These items include car batteries, oil-based paints, fluorescent light bulbs, pool chemicals, propane tanks, lawn chemicals, turpentine, bug sprays, antifreeze, paint thinners, varnishes, stains, driveway sealer, computers, TVs, printers and microwaves. This service is available by appointment only. Do not throw such items in your trash or recycling bins.

Waste Regulations Are Not Exactly Universal

By DAVID FISHER/ecoRI staff

Concerns have been raised about the possible toxicity of pharmaceuticals in the solid-waste stream.The state Department of Environmental Management (DEM) recently proposed several amended regulations concerning what, in waste management parlance, is considered universal waste.

The term universal is rather misleading. Universal, in the case of waste, refers not to all waste, as one might assume, but to potentially hazardous wastes that could end up in the solid-waste stream.

The line between universal and hazardous is a thin one. Universal waste crosses that line when it is improperly disposed of, handled, stored, labeled and/or processed.

The current regulations already classify many potentially hazardous wastes as universal wastes, including all types of batteries, pesticides, mercury containing devices — thermostats, thermometers, barometers, sphygmomanometers, more commonly known as blood-pressure cuffs, electric switches and relays — and mercury containing lamps, such as fluorescent, neon, high-intensity discharge and metal halide lights.

The DEM seeks to expand the definition of universal waste to include e-waste — basically, anything with a circuit board in it — medical waste — anything that is used in the treatment of humans and animals, such as syringes — tattoo needles and silver containing photo-fixing solutions.

By reclassifying these wastes as universal, rather than hazardous, the producers have up to one year to store them, rather than the 90-day storage limit on hazardous waste. This would allow producers to collect them in larger quantities, and handlers to pick them up less frequently. The reclassification also would allow handlers to use a bill of lading for disposal, rather than procuring a hazardous waste handler license, which requires more state oversight and more money. By loosening regulations on handlers and producers of these wastes, the DEM hopes to lessen the financial impact of handling and increase the proper disposal of said substances and products.

Some concern has been raised about the possible toxicity of pharmaceuticals in the solid-waste stream. Drugs present a particularly difficult problem to the waste industry. In most cases, waste handlers and governmental organizations do not have the technical expertise to assess the risks that these substances pose, or proper disposal methods and techniques. Drug and medical waste also present a problem in the case of mandated quarantine.

Let’s say a local poultry producer has an outbreak of avian flu. The farm reports this outbreak, and is then quarantined by the DEM. It’s certainly less hazardous to process and dispose of possibly contaminated medical waste and animals on site, rather than to transport those wastes and animals to another location for disposal. The DEM has made provisions in the amended regulations to allow the director to bypass regulations in just such a case.

In the case of unused or out-of-date pharmaceuticals, there has been some federal and state discussion of mandated producer take back, whereas, a producer, such as Pfizer or Merck, would be required to take back expired or unused drugs for disposal. The idea here is the producers of these drugs know the potential environmental and human health hazards posed by these substances, and have the financial ability and infrastructure to dispose of them properly. This has become the norm in the European Union, as it changes their approach to hazardous waste to a precautionary, rather than a reactionary model.

Chemotherapy drugs and waste are good examples. These drugs are, by design, hazardous to humans. They are engineered to kill human cells.

The proposed amendments are written, and then offered to the public for comments and input. The DEM has received hundreds of comments and concerns about these proposed amendments. Some believe the amended definitions are too broad, especially in the case of e-waste. One local veterinarian offered six pages of comments, concerns and suggestions.

The proposed regulations also are being designed to eliminate loopholes, and to act in concert with current state and federal legislation and guidelines. In some cases, Rhode Island waste regulation is more stringent than federal regulations. A copy of the proposed amendments can be found here.

The DEM expects the new regulations to be in effect by late June or early July. Municipal waste transfer stations expect e-waste, but check with your local transfer station to see if it takes other forms of universal waste. The Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation’s Eco-Depot also accepts computers and monitors, and your local Home Depot will accept fluorescent bulbs for disposal. Contact the Eco-Depot at 401-942- 1430.

Anyone who sees or knows of questionable hazardous waste disposal techniques should report them to the DEM by calling 401-222-1360. Then e-mail me at dave@ecoRI.org.

For more information, visit dem.ri.gov/pubs.

Compost Takes Time, or Else It’s Nothing But Horsesh*t

By FRANK CARINI/ecoRI staff

Compost created in a 30-gallon plastic trash barrel, with holes punched in the lid and bottom, sits in a tiny Providence backyard. (Frank Carini/ecoRI staff)PROVIDENCE — Time makes good compost, according to at least one local land steward, who recommends disregarding the hype of impatient gardeners who say otherwise.

“Quick compost is a fallacy,” Rich Pederson, the steward of the Southside Community Land Trust’s City Farm, recently told an audience of compost enthusiasts who had gathered at AS220 on Empire Street to listen to the longtime farmer and his composting colleague Greg Gerritt talk about the art of turning food/yard waste into nutrient-rich natural fertilizer. “Don’t buy it. Don’t believe it. It’s crap.”

One suspects Pederson meant both the myth and unaged compost were worthless. He said it takes at least a year to make what many gardeners and farmers call “black gold.”

Pederson uses food waste, yard debris, horse manure from the Roger Williams University stables and coffee grounds he collects twice a week from the coffee shop White Electric to create the compost spread on City Farm’s soil, which he called the “soul” of the three-quarter-acre farm.

He’s less than thrilled that about 25 percent of the material buried at the Central Landfill in Johnston is food scraps and yard waste that could be used to grow food.

“During World War Two 40 percent of the food grown in this country was grown in Victory Gardens,” Pederson said. “Good gardens start with good compost.”

Gerritt is spearheading a movement to remove food waste from the Ocean State’s trash stream and use it to create organic soil rich in nutrients. To do that Gerritt is working with various stakeholders in developing a statewide curbside composting program, especially one that collects food waste from restaurants and universities.

Such a system likely would require developing various, and expensive, compost facilities around the state. “We don’t want to be creating transportation pollution by trucking this waste all across the state,” said Gerritt, a member of the Environment Council of Rhode Island. “We’ll need many compost facilities in order to keep it local to grow local food.”

Gerritt said the various organizations involved in developing a municipal and/or statewide composting system should have a complete business plan done in the next six months. He predicted that in the next year and a half “things will happen.”

“Composting is an idea whose time as come,” he said. “We need to rebuild our soil and keep our food waste out of the landfill. We have to have compost if we want to continue feeding people.”

Recommended readings: "Pay Dirt," by J. I. Rodale and "Rats," by Robert Sullivan.

Landfill’s Recycling Stream Flows in Two Directions

Placing the wrong stuff in the blue and green bins slows that flow

Editor’s note: This is the eighth and final story in a series that looked at what happens to improperly disposed of recyclables and what happens to the stuff that is placed correctly in those blue and green bins.
Part 1: Small businesses are not required to recycle.
Part 2: Glass collected in the state is crushed and used as landfill cover.
Part 3: Metals represent a small fraction of what is collected.
Part 4: Plastics. What happens to Nos. 3-7?
Part 5: Paper/cardboard.
Part 6: Where does all that e-waste and construction/home remodeling debris end up?
Part 7: The Central Landfill in Johnston is a misunderstood place.
This week: A visit to the Central Landfill’s recycling facility.

By DAVID FISHER/ecoRI staff

A Materials Recycling Facility employee, with what looks like a gaff hook, stands next to the belt removing all of the unacceptable materials from the paper stream. (David Fisher/ecoRI staff photos)JOHNSTON — The Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) at the Central Landfill isn’t a recycling facility at all. Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation staff only sorts the recyclables brought to the state landfill, and then these materials are sold to recyclers and remanufactures, or as is the case with glass, used in some capacity at the landfill.

The MRF is a dual-stream sorting operation. The two streams are paper fiber — think office paper and cardboard — and commingled recyclables — think bottles and cans. Residents are required to perform the initial separation of materials into the appropriate blue or green bin. Once onsite, recycling trucks have to weigh in three times — once on the way in, once after unloading their paper and once after unloading their mixed materials, when they are empty.

All mixed materials — the blue-bin stuff — including plastic, glass, aluminum and steel, enter the sorting stream from a hopper that feeds into a series of conveyor belts, where they are sorted first by employees and then with some help from machines.

The first part of the system is the removal of glass, by hand, from the stream. The glass is then sent to a machine that crushes it into cullet, which is mostly used in the cover material for the landfill.

The next part of the separation is the removal of metals, with the exception of aluminum cans, from the waste stream. A large electromagnet removes any metals containing iron, such as tin and steel cans, and sends these metals to a steel cage for bailing.

The next part of the process is the most labor intensive in the mixed-recyclable stream. Removing the correct plastics from the stream involves learning what plastics are acceptable, along with the mental and physical toughness to stand in one place and make repetitive motions all day long. The plastics are removed from the belts and separated into the proper bins by hand, and the belts are not moving slowly.

The final step in the separation process is the removal of aluminum cans. This is achieved by using an ingenious device called an eddy current separator. This machine consists of an electromagnet placed under a rotating metal disk. This apparatus is then placed under the conveyor belt. The rotation of the disk allows for the introduction of a small electrical charge into conductive metals such as aluminum. That charge causes the metal to be repelled from the magnetic source.

The aluminum cans literally jump off the end of the conveyor belt into a chute about 2 feet away, and the lighter materials, such as unacceptable plastics and paper, fall into a chute placed directly at the end of the belt.

All of the materials from this stream, with the exception of glass, are baled and shipped to recyclers.

The Materials Recycling Facility sorts the recyclables brought to the Central Landfill.The second waste stream is the paper stream. This process is extremely frustrating for Resource Recovery Corporation employees because, even after 20 years of residential recycling in Rhode Island, people still don’t seem to know what paper products are acceptable for recycling.

All of the pre-separated paper and cardboard is loaded into a rotating drum feeder and moved onto a conveyor belt. One man, with what looks like a gaff hook, stands next to the belt removing all of the unacceptable materials from the paper stream. The materials he pulls from the belt are sent down a chute to a Dumpster. The lack of proper separation by residents is glaringly evident at this point in the process, as the Dumpster may be emptied up to five times a day.

At this point, the paper stream picks up speed and is separated into newsprint, cardboard and all other paper. It is then baled and shipped across the world. Here is a 30-second video that shows how quickly the streams are moving.

Plastic bags also present problems for MRF workers. These bags are the No. 1 cause of contamination in the paper stream, and when combined with cables, wires and fabric cause jams in the separation belts and machinery.

Another problem for the Resource Recovery Corporation is petroleum prices. Under the current system, all sorted materials are shipped to recyclers. There likely comes a point when the cost of shipping exceeds the value of the shipped goods. Our glass isn’t recycled for this reason.

When the Resource Recovery Corporation built out the industrial park on which the recycling facility sits, the vision was to reduce shipping costs by having companies that could process the sorted materials move into the park. This would greatly reduce shipping costs, and increase profits.

Unfortunately, despite efforts by Resource Recovery Corporation to attract these types of businesses, this vision has witnessed little success. The state could go a long way to woo recyclers to Johnston with tax credits and the like, but has yet to do so.

As this eight-part series has shown, we’ve made a lot of progress as a state in increasing the percentage of recyclable materials sent to the Central Landfill. But we still have a long way to go. Space is finite at the landfill. The Resource Recovery Corporation has recently begun construction of the sixth landfill phase, and when that one is capped, we’ll have to find a new place for our garbage.