Collegiate Times

Once the truck — which can carry approximately 20,000 pounds of food and organic waste — returns to the farm, its innards are emptied and shaped into windrows, which is a triangular mound that extends for a great length. PME Compost’s windrows start out approximately nine feet wide by seven feet tall, and they stretch 250 feet.

“We kind of layer it like a lasagna,” Mindy said. “So you come in and you layer your food waste; we use leaves, and we use wood waste.”

Calin said the farm contains anywhere from one to nine windrows during a given season. The windrows sit for eight to 10 months, occasionally jostled by a bladed “turner,” which churns the elements to expose buried pieces to oxygen.

After just the first month, Mindy said, the windrows break down 50 percent, dropping to heights of four to five feet.

The final product is screened down to a half-inch soil that, when mixed with traditional soil, boasts benefits including improved workability and porosity as well as erosion control.

Budowle said Tech will soon witness the performance of the PME Compost product.

“Through a partnership with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Kentland Farm — Virginia Tech’s farm,” she said, “we have an acre where we’re doing sustainable vegetable production for the upcoming season.”

PME Compost recently connected with Kentland Farm.

“We actually just took some compost over there the other week,” Mindy said. “It kind of completed the cycle. It’s kind of awesome.”

Different Tech crops including potatoes, tomatoes and peppers will be used in Dietrick Dining Center this summer.

“Just to show people what this region can support agriculturally I think is important,” Budowle said.

The new PME Compost truck, Calin said, will be ready to collect those very scraps it ultimately helped create.

Mindy said she, Calin and Stanley currently work 10 to 14 hour days, six days per week for PME Compost. Along with Tech, their other customers include both Blacksburg Kroger locations, Christiansburg High School and Due South BBQ.

“We need about five more people,” Mindy said with a laugh.

Calin had some help during a recent compost delivery to Fishburn Park Elementary School in Roanoke. He said he asked if they wanted him to diffuse the goods.

“They said, ‘No. Dump it in a big pile. We’re going to have all the little kids with their hands go and spread it,’” he said.

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