Collegiate Times

Poplar Manor Enterprises employee Matt Stanley collects leftovers from Owens Food court with PME's personal truck.

A Radford graduate, Mindy said she helped Calin move beyond manure-based composting experiments, which were drawn from the farm’s cattle. In January 2009, they acquired a permit from the Department of Environmental Quality to compost food waste on seven of the farm’s 140 acres.

Tech, Mindy said, was anxious to welcome PME Compost.

“We got permitted like on a Wednesday,” she said, “Calin got his CDL license to drive a truck on a Thursday, and we had our first pickup at Southgate (Center) at like 5 a.m. on a Friday.”

Rachael Budowle previously served as Solid Waste Community Programs Coordinator for the Town of Blacksburg. She began a dialogue with PME Compost during her tenure there and has continued it at Tech.

“It was serendipitous that they got their permits — they were really only the second facility in the state that is able to accept this kind of waste,” Budowle said. “And to have it just be 35 minutes from us is really helpful.”

Budowle said PME Compost currently services Southgate Center and Owens Dining Center, which includes Hokie Grill, Personal Touch Catering and Owens.

Southgate Center is a predominantly pre-consumer food facility, therefore it produces fragments such as cantaloupe rinds or broccoli stems. Owens combines pre- and post-consumer waste — the excess you set on the assembly-line tray returns.

“With the kind of waste that we produce in a food-service industry,” Budowle said, “composting is really the way to go. I mean — that’s where most of our waste is coming from. It’s organic waste than can be recycled through composting.”

Budowle said training Southgate Center and Owens employees was extensive. She did facility walkthroughs with managers to finalize the placement of composting carts, composting signage and other referential visual cues. Budowle and Mindy led a presentation to regular staff members as well.

“Additionally we did in vivo, live trainings,” Budowle said, “where I would be back there with them with gloves on, sorting and helping them learn on the job exactly what’s compostable and what’s not.”

Budowle said Owens redirects approximately five tons of food and organic waste away from traditional landfills each week. From Southgate Center, PME Compost shuttles another nearly 3 tons per week to its farm — Southgate Center regularly diverts 75 percent of its waste.

Items such as parchment paper and cardboard are also compostable.

“(Southgate Center) gotten the system down so well there that they’re composting paper towels and things like that after they wash their hands,” Budowle said.

Considering the favorable numbers, Budowle said she hopes to escalate the endeavor.

“(Composting) coupled with recycling, we’d really like to get to the point where we don’t have much trash left,” she said. “I mean there’s always going to be something, but we’re going to be diverting a significant amount.”

Ideally, Budowle said, Tech’s composting could transcend dining centers into dormitories and other common areas, though it would be difficult to monitor.

“Other universities are examining ways to have composting stations for students to separate their own waste,” she said. “The risk for contamination increases greatly when you open it up to consumers.”

The only obstacle preventing PME Compost from reaching other dining centers, Budowle said, is the necessary equipment. Southgate Center already had a mechanical lift to lower the robust collection carts to ground level from loading docks. Tech installed one at Owens specifically to pilot PME Compost.

Calin said facility employees couldn’t otherwise safely maneuver the carts.

“They’re supposed to weigh about 168 pounds,” he said. “But if they get filled up with, let’s say straight all mashed potatoes, they can weigh up to 400.”

Moments later, while Stanley coasted by him with a cart, Calin awkwardly pivoted one to its loading mark.

“This one, for example, is 400 pounds,” he said.

However, a second PME Compost truck is in the works. Calin said it will be fitted to snag carts directly off loading docks.

“As a business, we took a big risk with buying a truck just for Virginia Tech,” he said, “in hopes that, you know, that they would give us the rest of their dining halls and it would pay for itself.”

PME Compost performs all the necessary modifications to its trucks, whether it’s welding for tighter seals in anticipation of leakage or installing a hose system with 120 pounds per square inch of water pressure to rinse the carts.

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A version of this article appeared in the Apr 21 issue of the Collegiate Times.