By: Crystal Kwaw, Reporter
OMAHA, Neb. – Hillside Solutions is taking orders for the lesser-known form of recycling – food and yard waste.
“Most people assume when waste goes to a landfill it just breaks that safely into dirt, but it doesn’t,” said Brent Crampton, Director of Partners at Hillside Solutions.
UNO Freshman, Emane Ahmed said, “We should encourage students to be more eco-friendly, not teaching them to use plastics.” She said she doesn’t know of any place to compost in Omaha.
Hillside Solutions is Omaha’s only industrial composting facility that turns food in our garbage into finished compost. It is added to soil to produce healthy crops.
According to The Waste Crisis by Hans Tammemagi, finished compost is measured by the carbon/nitrogen ratio. This measure is important to assist plant growth.
Without finished compost, pesticides, herbicides and synthetic fertilizers are used to drive as much crops as possible in a short amount of time.
A 2017 study called, Adoption of Pro‐environmental Behaviors Among Farmers: Application of Value–Belief– Norm theory said, the chemical-based farming practices has led to water contamination, decreased biodiversity, pest resistance and soil erosion.
Another article titled, Is Too Much Fertilizer a Problem on Frontiers for Young Minds, said excess chemicals also contaminate groundwater, runs off in waterways and harms other ecosystems. The researchers said fertilizers give microorganisms and plant additional growth, however, too much growth “can use up all the oxygen in their waterways and turn them into dead zones.” This process is called eutrophication.
Rather than rely on chemicals that on one hand speed up harvest, but on the other hand, strips nutrients out of the soil, Crampton said, composting is a solution to that agronomical problem.
“We take and put it into the soil and then the plants have everything they need to grow,” he said about finished composts.
Hillside Solutions uses Windrow composting, which is shaped like an elongated triangular pyramid. According to Tammemagi, protein, carbs and other types of sugars are broken down microorganisms, oxygen and heat. The author said, it’s turned regularly to keep 50 to 60% moisture.
Crampton said, it must maintain at least 130-degree Fahrenheit, and it takes 1 to 2 months to break down, and a year to be cured.
“A lot of people are probably recycling so they can learn how to recycle better, but the next thing is, what about this composting thing?” Crampton asked. “Let’s figure that out, so we figure it out for people.”
The company has partnered with UNO’s Office of Sustainability to make compost sites free for its students.
