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Photo courtesy of Mariam Zachary

Andy Bastian ’12 fiddles with the two new rotary composters in the basement of Hicks Hall to make them more efficient.

BY JACQUELINE SMALL

In print | Published August 26, 2010

Composting at Swarthmore is about to become much more efficient.

After two years of collaborating with students, Kanti Somani’s project of installing solar-powered compost bins on campus has reached its final stage. In a partnership with the college, Somani, the owner of a compost company called worms.com, applied for a $16,000 grant from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania in early 2008. They were awarded the grant in 2009, and two bins were installed in Hicks Hall and tested.

The bins will turn food scraps and other waste into plant fertilizer, which will be used for an organic lawn project on Mertz Field and in community gardens in Chester. The goal is to fertilize Mertz Field entirely with compost from the dining hall instead of man-made fertilizers. This will stop food waste from Sharples and Essie Mae’s from going to landfills or being incinerated. Somani said he hopes to be able to use some of the compost to feed his worms, as well.

Somani’s business, worms.com, sells compost bins, worms, and books about composting throughout the United States and Canada. Initially, he thought he would apply for the grant for himself, but decided to team up with a college and chose Swarthmore after hearing about the Good Food Project.
Over the summer, three students, Andy Bastian ’12, Jean Dahlquist ’11, and Camille Robertson ’13, were involved with the project. Bastian worked on remodelling the bins to be more effective, and Dahlquist and Robertson, both of whom are part of the Good Food Project, helped determine where the new bins should be placed on campus and what their role should be in the existing composting routine.

Normally, compost bins must be manually or machine-turned to allow oxygen to reach the waste and help it decompose. The solar powered bins have many benefits over other types. “These will be fully sustainable because they’ll be totally powered by the sun. Air is forced into it, and all your organic material can go into it. This really speeds up the process, so something that could take a couple of weeks only takes a couple of days. We also don’t have to worry about whether it’s getting enough air,” Somani said.

Each of the bins, which are about as wide as a desk, has a 900-pound capacity welded aluminum drum with insulated walls, which sits on a set of rollers that turn to spin the contents of the drum. While the drum tumbles, an air pump allows the oxygen to contact the compost.

“The aeration is essential to fuel the aerobic microorganisms that are responsible for breaking down the organic material in the drum. Without aeration, anaerobic organisms take over and produce really smelly by-products,” Bastian said in an e-mail.

As the organic materials decompose, they generate considerable amounts of heat, which is why this kind of composting is called thermophilic composting. “The main decomposers thrive in high temperatures, usually between 120 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit,” Bastian said. “Temperatures [in the bin] can get up to almost 160 degrees though, which is hot enough to cook a steak to medium rare.”

When the bins first came to campus after being shipped from Texas, there were several problems with them. “We saw that we were going to make a lot of changes,” Bastian said. “The system worked, just not well.” The units did not work well when the sun was not out, such as overnight or over a series of cloudy days, which drained the battery quickly.

Bastian spent a few weeks trying to modify the system, but eventually removed and replaced it with a more robust and efficient one. “The whole project was a good exercise in hands-on engineering design and I learned a lot about composting and working with solar power,” he said. Somani stressed the importance of his dedication and that after about three days, he knew he could rely on Bastian to finish the project.

The bins will use food from the dining hall and snack bar during the year. During summer, because Sharples was closed, the bins broke down paper dust, coffee bean chaff, and other waste substances donated by companies including Kimberly-Clark, ABC Lids, and Open Sky. Somani said, “I feel that it is very important to team up with local businesses and try to give back to the community.” He added that these companies are part of the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia.

According to its website, sbnphiladelphia.org, the SBN is “a nonprofit network of local triple-bottom-line businesses and social entrepreneurs. We are local business people, professionals, social entrepreneurs, investors, not-for-profit leaders, and government representatives who are committed to building a more socially, environmentally, and financially sustainable local economy.”

Samples of the compost have been sent to Pennsylvania State University, and Somani said they “received some very favorable results.”

Jean Dahlquist ’11, co-coordinator of the Good Food Compost Project, said in an e-mail that she was impressed by the speed with which this project has progressed since the grant was awarded.

“It is amazing what you can do at Swarthmore with a few determined students… I just hope we can keep up the flow of new ideas and lots of drive.”

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