Napa, Calif.-A Napa Valley waste management company says a U.S. market is starting to develop for a decomposer that turns wet food wastes into a nutrient-rich soil amendment in less than a day. Kathi Olson, marketing manager for FRG Waste Resources, told Green Markets that FRG has been handling the decomposer since June 2008 and has a number of customers at restaurants, cooking schools, grocery stores, and hospitals. Olson said the equipment was developed in South Korea, where it’s been in use for 10 to 15 years. It sells for between $17,000 and $150,000, depending on the company’s waste stream. “Now the market is starting to burst open here,” she declared. It takes all kinds of food wastes and heats them up to 180 degrees in a closed baffle, which breaks down the material in 10 to 20 hours. A typical application reduces the volume by about 70 percent, leaving a dry, nutrient-rich soil additive that can be used just like fertilizer and tilled into the soil. A restaurant in St. Helena operates its decomposer twice a day, filling it with about 100 pounds of almost everything, from egg shells, macaroni and cheese, coffee grounds, and mashed potatoes to vegetables and bread, and turns it into 15 pounds of sterilized soil additive. The processor, enclosed in a cabinet resembling a copy machine, is easy to operate without emitting any offensive odors. “All that is required is to fill the unit to the specified fill height, close all doors, power it on, and then press the start button.” Olson said that before becoming a manufacturer rep FRB obtained its own decomposer, installed it with a client, and field-tested for six months. Each user gets a lab analysis of the output for nutrient content, which generally runs high in nitrogen.
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