
Let the Clean Revolution Begin!By Don Comis August 28, 2000
In the spirit of Earth Day, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been
involved in a project that helps keep the environment clean by composting
plates and bowls discarded at a Washington, D.C., cafeteria. The plates and bowls are made of a new biodegradable composite
material, called EarthShell Packaging, that is mostly limestone and starch.
EarthShell Corp. of
Baltimore, Md., has supplied the products for the project since Earth Day 1999,
decreasing by 24 percent the amount of solid waste sent to landfills. Patricia Millner, a microbiologist with USDAs
Agricultural Research Service in
Beltsville, Md., composted the plates, bowls, unbleached paper napkins, fiber
trays and food from the U.S.
Department of the Interiors main cafeteria. As part of the project,
diners threw the disposables into cans lined with EarthShell trash bags. The
kitchen added food scraps, and Millner then mixed the cafeteria waste with
leaves and grass clippings from the ARS research center in Beltsville. Once or twice a week, Interior shipped the bagged garbage to
Beltsville, where Millner and colleagues tested different ways of composting
it. They got the quickest results with a closed container using a mixing
auger. Only small traces of the biodegradable plates, bowls and bags
could be seen after four weeks. By six months, all traces were gone.
Nonbiodegradable items, like plastic forks thrown into the bags by mistake,
were the main identifiable remnants in the final compost. More intense
composting management could speed up the decomposition of the biodegradable
items. Millner used the compost to grow cucumbers and found they did as
well as those grown in commercial potting mixes. Limestone in the dinnerware would give farmers a free soil
conditioner when they apply the compost to their fields. The compost could also
be used to improve soil to grow plants for wildlife habitat. The EarthShell Corp. will continue to supply products to
Interiors cafeteria until the products are commercially available. Scientific contact: Patricia Millner, ARS
Soil Microbial Systems
Laboratory, Beltsville, Md., phone, (301) 504-8163, fax, (301) 504-8370,
[email protected]. Story contacts Patricia D Millner U.S. Department of Agriculture |