EarthCare Spreads Compost Globally

Since it left the University of Arkansas Genesis Technology Incubator in the mid-1990s, EarthCare Technologies Inc. has continued to struggle locally to prove it can compost darn near anything in rapid time. In other parts of the world, the company is finding it a little easier.

EarthCare technology was used to compost 400 pounds of animal waste, 17.2 tons of food waste and 10.22 tons of green waste, all delivered Oct. 15 to the compost facility run by Northwest Arkansas Recovery.

A typical day at the Lincoln site includes one or two visits from independent farmers each with a couple hundred dead chickens needing composting. Once or twice a week the company will also take in a large animal for composting — a cow, horse, mule or an emu. They’ll also take in one or two truckloads of food waste each day.

Pinnacle Foods of Fayetteville composts some of its food waste at the compost site south of Lincoln. A few farmers also bring their dead animals in for composting, but the company has never taken off with the poultry industry as originally hoped.

Phil Fredericks, president and founder of EarthCare, said he’s still baffled by the lack of acceptance for the composting technology that involves quick-eating microbes that devour anything biodegradable. Fredericks serves as president of NWAR also.

Jan Sallings, production manager for EarthCare, said it takes only two days to compost a chicken leaving only the bones and about two weeks to compost it completely. It takes longer for larger animals.

NWAR has state permits to compost animal and food waste and was awarded a permit for composting mixed solid waste in 1998 but can’t get any local governments to sign up for the service.

Opponents say the technology doesn’t encourage waste reduction and recycling because EarthCare’s system involves grinding up all of the waste, composting it and screening out anything that didn’t decay. Fredericks claims he can reduce the waste stream by 85 percent.

Opposition also has been based on fears of environmental problems from the compost site. Pests, odors and run-off are among the most frequently mentioned concerns in the numerous public hearings on EarthCare projects since 1990.

In Vietnam, China and Nigeria, the company is already composting or developing compost operations to handle mixed solid waste. After three years of testing by the Mekong Delta Rice Institute in Vietnam, Fredericks said the company was approved for operations in 10 different Vietnamese cities.

Fredericks said the compost produced sells for half the cost of fertilizer and helps the crops more. It stays around the plant and doesn’t seep down into the soil like fertilizer, he said.

He believes that Middle Eastern countries are more accepting of his technology because they have more severe environmental problems on farmland and realize they have to act quickly to deal with it. They also don’t have the kind of money the United States has for dealing with environmental problems, he said.

“They can’t afford $100 million landfills or $60,000 to $100,000 incinerators,” he said. “They can’t afford to subsidize the chemicals to farmers.”

The future looks good for EarthCare, despite local opposition. Fredericks predicts that within five years, the company will be operating on every continent.

“Within five years this will be an internationally recognized technology for both disposable waste and sustainable agriculture,” he said.

EarthCare has 320 acres off Arkansas 59 where it has its offices, an 11-acre mixed-solid waste compost site, seven acres for composting source-separated organic materials and seven acres for animal waste composting.