Transforming Organic Waste Management in PA: Is there anything to be learned from Old Europe

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Transforming Organic Waste Management in PAIs
there anything to be learned from Old Europe?
RICK STEHOUWER DEPARTMENT of CROP SOIL SCIENCES
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The PA situation

• MSW
• We throw away 1.9 kg (4.1 lb)/person/day
• 67 of that is organic (food, paper, leaf and
  yard material, cardboard, wood).

• Each person throws away 0.5 ton/yr of organics
  (6.2 million tons per year in PA)

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The PA situation

• Leaf and yard waste
• We have a weak, quasi-ban on landfilling of leaf
  and yard waste
• Municipalities are to source separately collect
  these materials
• PA DEP has provided millions of in grants to
  municipalities to run composting programs

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The PA situation

• Excess manure
• Need to move manure off farm
• Composting is one option
• Need for carbon rich material for composting

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Organic Waste Management Issues

• Both municipal and agricultural
• Both environmental and economic
• Sustainability of
• Municipal waste management systems
• Farming systems
• Energy and carbon cycles
• Soil and water quality
• How can we begin to address these issues?

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Austrian waste management goals

• Transition from waste management to sustainable
  material flow management
• Prevent organic materials from entering landfills
• Organic material recycling should
• Restore the natural cycle of carbon and nutrients
• Be done on a local scale (minimize
  transportation)
• As decentralized as possible, as centralized as
  necessary

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The Landfill is not in the picture Organics are
not waste
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How do we initiate a transformation?

• Need a group of people representing key areas
  related to organic waste management
• Cooperative extension educators
• Farmers
• Municipal public works directors
• County recycling coordinators
• Commercial and municipal composters
• Public policy makers
• Environmental regulators
• Need to be geographically distributed across the
  state

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How do we initiate a transformation?

• These people need to form a team that is
• Committed to working together and studying
  alternative approaches to organic waste
  management
• Committed to developing a new vision for
  integrated organic waste management
• Committed to undertaking specific projects to
  implement that vision
• Committed to organics evangelism

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The project

• Funded by USDA CSREES International Science and
  Education Program
• Project Goals
• Articulate a new vision for organic waste
  management in PA that reconnects municipal and
  agricultural sectors in mutually beneficial and
  sustainable flows of energy, organic matter,
  nutrients, and capital.
• Disseminate this vision to a wide audience.
• Develop and implement an action plan that will
  demonstrate how some aspect of PAs organic waste
  management system could be transformed to reflect
  the articulated vision.

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The Project

• Formed two teams with 12 professionals in each
  group
• Team members committed project goals and
  specifically to
• Two intensive 12 day organics recycling study
  tours in Germany and Austria
• 2 days of pre-study tour classes and at least 3
  days of post-study tour meetings
• Each member paid 1,000 for the chance to do this
  work

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The project

• Worked with three key hosts in Germany and
  Austria to develop a study tour that included
• Seminars
• Meetings with policy makers, educators,
  regulators, farmers, composters, plant managers
• Site visits
• Debriefing time for the teams

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Results to date

• First team has begun to develop a vision paper
• Second team will add their insights and ideas
• Together the two teams (now one team of 26) will
  finalize this paper in the next few months
• First team has also
• Made over 50 presentations to a diverse array of
  audiences
• Initiated several projects