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Mission Waco starts commercial composting

Posted at 11:55 AM, Aug 15, 2017
and last updated 2018-07-24 21:30:59-04

Mission Waco's Urban Renewable Energy & Agriculture Project started making commercial composting on Tuesday.

The 150 pounds of food waste is expected to make 30 pounds of compost material within 24 hours. 

"Most of us in our Western culture throw away way too much and so because this is such a great material to turn into compost and people sometimes are too lazy to dig a hole and make a compost pile. This is an easy process," Mission Waco Executive Director Jimmy Dorrell said.

The 1.5 cubic meter bags of compost will be available for sale at the URBAN R.E.A.P next to the Jubilee Food Market in North Waco.

"We're not sending that much material to the landfill. We're providing material that can be used on home gardens and potted plants," Baylor University Laboratory Coordinator for the Environmental Sciences Department Doug Nesmith said. 

If you would like to donate food waste, mainly plant material, for compost, you can pick up a blue bucket at Mission Waco's Urban R.E.A.P at 1505 N. 15th Street.

"It's exciting because I have never seen one in use. I heard about them for years. It has It has been a lot of fun coming here every day and feeding the microbes and getting it started in what we have here today. Our final product," Nesmith said.

The Urban REAP project, which started through donations and grants, also includes an aquaponics greenhouse, solar panels and a rainwater purification system.

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