HILLBURN –
What goes in, must go out, right? But then what?
For 15 years, the Rockland County Solid Waste Management Authority has been providing a clever—and valuable—answer: biosolids-based compost. Sludge from the county’s six wastewater treatment plants is mixed with wood chips to produce nutrient-rich compost. The compost is then sold to landscapers and others looking to improve the quality of their soil. It is not offered directly to the general public.
Profiting from waste: “We create this product that can be sold to offset the costs of what the residents of Rockland County flush down their toilets,” John Klos, the authority’s operations manager, said. “Most people don’t think of that. When you flush it, you don’t care, you don’t know where it goes and don’t care, but eventually a product is made that can be sold.” Klos calls it “black gold.” He said more than $100,000 worth of the stuff is sold per year.
Veggies a no-go: The product — dark, loamy stuff that carries none of the odor of its source material — can be used in the building of athletic fields, roadside berms and yards. New York does not permit its use in vegetable gardens, but 49 other states do. Charles Duprey, sales manager for WeCare Organics, the contractor that runs the biosolid composting program in Rockland and elsewhere, said, “It’s an archaic holdover in New York State.”
Tested and approved: After a 50-day process in which the material is mixed and cured, it is tested weekly for anything that could pose a health risk. “There’s nothing in there that’s any different than what’s in your back yard,” Brian Fleury, senior vice president at WeCare Organics, said.
Locally unique: Typically, wastewater sludge—the solids remaining at the end of the sewage-treatment process—is either buried in a landfill or incinerated. Neither Putnam nor Westchester has a similar county-wide policy for the disposal of biosolids. Yonkers’ sludge, for example, is dried and trucked to Pennsylvania, where it is composted. Mamaroneck and New Rochelle send their sludge to Connecticut, where it is burned to make electricity.
Saving space: All of Rockland County’s sludge is trucked to the authority’s facility in Hillburn. There’s no shortage of it: 100 tons a day, five days a week. “There is an absolute need for more organic matter in our soils,” Fleury said, “and an absolute need to bury less material in our landfills.”
Gone, baby, gone: In the parlance of sustainability, reusing the sludge helps “close the loop.” And it’s popular. Fleury said they produce about 25,000 cubic yards of biosolid compost a year, and every year they sell out.
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