NuTerra announced the ground breaking of a new organics recycling facility that initiates the second phase of Haines City, Fla.’s plan to produce a high-quality compost product to be offered to residents and surrounding communities for lawns, athletic fields, golf courses and agriculture.
Using NuTerra’s proprietary process control system, the facility continuously monitors and automates the composting process. This streamlined approach eliminates the need to reposition probes and avoids disruption of the process from exposure to rain, humidity and other factors that impact the active composting and curing processes. The facility design ensures a high-quality end product and minimal odor nuisances for nearby neighbors.
“NuTerra is making it economically possible to live up to our states’s high environmental standards. By recycling and reusing biosolids, yard waste and other organic waste, we’re reducing disposition costs with far fewer trips to the landfill and mitigating nutrient and ground water pollution,” said Haines City Utility Director Mike Stripling. “The facility will provide surrounding communities an economically and environmentally advantageous outlet for their organics waste. In addition, offsetting the use of commercial fertilizers with compost by our local athletic fields will result in superior water retention properties and allow for the slow release of beneficial nutrients.”
NuTerra designed the new facility and will build, operate and maintain it at the wastewater treatment plant’s property site. Haines City will own the building, which will blend residents’ yard waste with wastewater treatment biosolids and other organic waste accepted from surrounding communities and commercial interests. NuTerra will market the resulting compost product for unrestricted reuse locally and in surrounding communities.
Phase one began in 2012 when NuTerra helped Haines City meet its financial goals and produce a Class AA/EQ product by upgrading wastewater treatment from aerobic digestion to BCR Environmental’s Neutralizer system. The city avoided capital expenditures of $2.75 million for digester rehabilitation and dewatering equipment, reduced annual biosolids treatment and disposition costs by approximately $133,000 for 20 years, reduced energy costs for biosolids treatment by approximately 97%, and created a virtually odor-free operation.
Source: NuTerra
