Waste Management Composting Technology

Waste Management (WM) owns a landfill in Solon that no longer accepts municipal solid waste. Since 2001, Stouffer's, located nearby, has used methane gas from this landfill. This fuel source meets about 80% of Stouffer's processing and plant.... WM uses a recovery, compression and treatment system to capture the methane.

The Solon WM site currently accepts construction and demolition waste. The wood waste is being chipped and is being used as a bulking agent in WM's new composting system. WM has developed the Reclaimable Anaerobic Composter (RAC®) to process food scraps and biodegradable packaging. Solon is the first site in the country to use this new technology. They currently have two pods built with plans to scale to 12 by 2011.

The RAC uses a pod system for batch treatment of organics, including yard waste, wood chips, oil grease and food scraps. Each pod processes 2,100 cubic yards of waste using a 3 to 1 ratio of food scraps to bulking agent. The RAC produces methane, which could be used as a fuel source. The solid byproduct of the process is a valuable soil amendment.

WM is seeking partners to provide clean food scraps (no plastic or styrofoam) to test this technology. WM has partnered with Garick to haul materials to its site.

For further information, click here for downloadable brochure or contact:

Tom Farnsworth
Waste Solutions Representative
330-204-4244