Ag Answers:Composting Industry Tour set for Aug. 23 in northwest Ohio

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Two innovative, large-scale composting facilities in northwest Ohio will be featured at Composting in Ohio 2012: A Tour of the Industry, Aug. 23.

The first stop on the tour will be at the Wood County Landfill in Bowling Green, which processes more than 1,300 tons of leaves and yard waste each year. The facility also grinds and screens 1,000 tons of brush into mulch, is home to Ohio’s first commercial wind farm, and is currently installing a landfill gas collection system for generating electricity.

The afternoon session will be at the Hirzel Farms Organic Composting Facility in Pemberville. In 2010 the facility processed more than 35 million pounds of food scraps, yard waste and manure, including tomato and cabbage trimmings from Hirzel Farms’ own canning facilities, and produced more than 7 million pounds of organic compost for use on the company’s organic crop fields and for sale to nurseries and landscapers.

Lunch will be at Bowling Green State University’s LEED-certified Oaks Dining Center, which features a green roof with an herb garden, recycled and renewable construction materials, solar-assisted power, and water-conservation and waste-reduction practices. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, the standards for which were established by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Advance registration is required by Aug. 17. General registration is $40 per person, student registration is $25, and both include lunch. Participants should send their name, organization name, address, telephone number and email address to Mary Wicks, OARDC/OSU, Administration Building, 1680 Madison Ave., Wooster, OH 44691. Checks should be made payable to OARDC/OSU.

Participants will meet at the Wood County Landfill, 15320 Tontogany Road, Bowling Green, at 9:30 a.m. A vanpool also will leave at 6:45 a.m. from the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, 1680 Madison Ave., Wooster. It will return at 5:30 p.m. Space in the vanpool is limited, so participants should make reservations when registering for the tour.

Ohio State University’s Ohio Composting and Manure Management Program and the non-profit Organics Recycling Association of Ohio sponsor the event.

OCAMM is part of OARDC, which is the research arm of Ohio State’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.