In a move that will allow the College and the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center to continue their now partially-stalled composting practices, Dartmouth will take over management of the Dartmouth/Hanover Composting Facility from New England Organics, a Maine-based waste management firm, starting mid-June.
"With a maximum capacity of only 800 tons per year, the small scale of the facility made it economically infeasible for a private company to manage," said vice president of New England Organics James Ecker.
Since New England Organics can no longer manage the compost facility, Facilities, Operations and Management has decided to take over operation of the facility after discussing the issue for the past six months. FO&M officials said composting is an important operation that needs to continue.
The exact costs of managing the facility are still being worked out, but associate vice president for FO&M John Gratiot said Dartmouth will have to pay only a little more than what they do now to continue composting food wastes. While Dartmouth will have to pay workers to operate the compost facility, it will no longer have to pay New England Organics to transport the food waste or pay them to buy back compost for campus use.
"One of the things we're hoping for is to streamline the operation and make the process more economical," FO&M civil engineer Lisa Ashworth said. "We're excited for the opportunity to continue composting for the campus."
The facility currently processes food waste from the College and DHMC and biosolids from the town of Hanover. After Dartmouth takes over operation of the facility it will only process food wastes from the College and DHMC. The biosolids from the town of Hanover will go to the Hawk Ridge Compost Center in Maine. This move will help the local facility's production, as the compost facility is too small to manage all the waste it currently receives.
Since the new compost facility operation will be on a smaller scale, Dartmouth will be able to cut the hours of operation in half from 40 to approximately 20 hours per week. This change should also make the project more economical.
There are no current plans for Dartmouth and the DHMC to expand their recycling and composting programs on campus in light of the change, but Dartmouth's new management of the compost facility could allow for the option in the future.
The change in management will not affect current campus composting methods. Food waste will still be composted in the dining facilities' kitchen instead of by students. However, until the switch is made, Dartmouth dining facilities will cease bringing food waste to the compost facility.
