Linking Agriculture with Industrial Waste Reduction

[From the Source - Summer 1997]

P²AD has established an agricultural waste reduction and pollution prevention program in cooperation with The University of Georgia's Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department and Cooperative Extension Service. Several projects currently being sponsored or supported by P²AD's agricultural program are demonstrating the beneficial linkage between agriculture, economic and sustainable development, and solid waste reduction. Each of these projects offers the potential for significant diversion of industrial solid waste from disposal in Georgia landfills and will serve as demonstration projects for others in the state. These are:

• Agricultural Test Plots: Several test plots have been established using crops such as cotton, peanuts, corn, and soybeans and by-product amendments such as sewage sludge, poultry litter, wallboard, mulched yard waste, various compost mixes, and some pulp and paper by-products. These and future plots are being used to evaluate environmental impacts, soil quality enhancements, and plant growth characteristic impacts associated with use of the by-product amendments. The sustainable agriculture training program will use the test plots to show farmers in the surrounding areas how the use of municipal, agricultural, and industrial by-products can benefit them.

• Sumter County Clean and Beautiful: One of the by-products of economic growth and progress is the building of new buildings and demolition of old buildings. The objective of this project is to demonstrate the benefits of diversion of the demolished wall board material for use as a soil amendment on peanut farms. Results to date indicate that the use of sheetrock provides an economical alternative to disposal of this material and, equally as important, provides a source of calcium which is beneficial to the production of peanuts as well as other crops.

• City of Douglas: This biomass composting project is designed to test the feasibility and effectiveness of composting a variety of agricultural and urban waste material with municipal wastewater sludge. Various mixtures of biosolids, cotton gin trash, and mulched yard debris are currently being tested at the University of Georgia Bioconversion Research and Demonstration Center to determine which mixes compost most rapidly and emit the least odor. The results of this laboratory study will be used to implement a full scale pilot project to demonstrate the benefits of composting these by-products. University scientists will also be working to market and promote the use of this material in the agricultural community.

• Gilmer/Pickens County Poultry Industry Project: Records indicate that in 1995, over 3,000 tons of poultry waste were disposed in one landfill in north Georgia, with over 6,000 tons of mortality produced per year by the poultry industry located in these two counties alone. The identification of economic alternatives to continued disposal of this waste stream is important to the stability and growth of this industry in the state. In addition, diversion of this waste would have a significant impact on the quantity of solid waste disposed in this part of the state. Viable opportunities have been identified for the diversion of this waste. Local government officials, solid waste managers, and poultry industry representatives are working to identify the issues and barriers associated with the implementation of one or more of these opportunities.

For more information about any of these projects, contact Dr. Mark Risse at (706) 542-2154.