Wednesday, August 31, 2011
ZerO Waste Golf is the message, and now it's our new name
I recently changed the name of this blog to "ZerO Waste Golf. The name change makes perfect sense...the posts that get the most readership all have zero waste in the headline.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Golf Course Food Wastes, An Excellent Opportunity for Environmental Leadership
The increasing amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere is generally blamed for global climate change. Most often, car emissions are held up as the example polluter of CO2. But after a brief research session, I found some interesting statistics that I'd like to share with you.
Autos: An average automobile releases 20 pounds of CO2 per gallon. Some research claims that the average car produces 6 tons of CO2 per year.
Airplanes: A commercial airliner flying non stop from Boston to Wichita releases approximately 1400 pounds of CO2. It's 1645 miles from Boston to Wichita, so that's just a little less than 1 pound of CO2per mile
Cows: An adult cow releases on average between 100 kg of methane per year. That equates to 2000 kg of CO2 per year, or 2 tons of CO2.
Landfilled Food Wastes: One ton of landfilled food wastes releases the equivalent of 6000 tons of CO2
WHAT? Yes it's true... Pound for pound, landfilled food wastes are the worst source for greenhouse gases of all.
Studies by Arizona State University have shown that one dry ton of food wastes that decay anaerobically in landfill releases approximately 300 cubic meters of methane gas into the atmosphere. Methane gas is recognized by USEPA as being 20 times more harmful to the atmosphere than CO2. 300 cubic meters of methane multiplied by 20 = 6000 cubic meters of CO2.
Diverting food waste from landfill must be elevated to the highest priority if the harmful effects of global warming are to be slowed.
Not everybody drives a car or flies an airplane. Coal power plants? who even knows where they are? But everybody (apologies to those who lack enough food to be included) eats everyday and throws their wasted food or scraps into the trash can. That is why Green Golfer Foundation feels so strongly that golf courses should spread the word and lead by example by composting food wastes. Simply put, landfilled food wastes are the major source of greenhouse pollutants, period.
Food waste composting is regulated in most states, so there are, most likely, some regulations to learn and to follow, usually based upon the amount of wastes being composted, where the wastes come from and where they're going to be used. At Dairy Creek GC, we use vessel composters that are certified for food waste composting, and we also use worm bins to digest food wastes into vermicompost.
A few communities have a municipal composting operation that accepts food wastes, so it is possible to divert food wastes from the landfill in that manner. Our community does not have such a facility, so we do our own composting. We want the compost, and the vermicompost, anyway, because we use it to make compost tea with which we reduce our fertilizer and pesticide use and costs.
Oh, by the way, in case you were counting on golf course trees to absorb all the CO2 produced on site...A single adult tree absorbs approximately 48 pounds of CO2 per year. Now, calculate your food waste and then figure out how many trees you need to plant in the rough.
Autos: An average automobile releases 20 pounds of CO2 per gallon. Some research claims that the average car produces 6 tons of CO2 per year.
Airplanes: A commercial airliner flying non stop from Boston to Wichita releases approximately 1400 pounds of CO2. It's 1645 miles from Boston to Wichita, so that's just a little less than 1 pound of CO2per mile
Cows: An adult cow releases on average between 100 kg of methane per year. That equates to 2000 kg of CO2 per year, or 2 tons of CO2.
Coal Fired Power Plant: One ton of coal burned in the average power plant releases approximately 2.5 tons of CO2.
Landfilled Food Wastes: One ton of landfilled food wastes releases the equivalent of 6000 tons of CO2
WHAT? Yes it's true... Pound for pound, landfilled food wastes are the worst source for greenhouse gases of all.
Studies by Arizona State University have shown that one dry ton of food wastes that decay anaerobically in landfill releases approximately 300 cubic meters of methane gas into the atmosphere. Methane gas is recognized by USEPA as being 20 times more harmful to the atmosphere than CO2. 300 cubic meters of methane multiplied by 20 = 6000 cubic meters of CO2.
Diverting food waste from landfill must be elevated to the highest priority if the harmful effects of global warming are to be slowed.
Not everybody drives a car or flies an airplane. Coal power plants? who even knows where they are? But everybody (apologies to those who lack enough food to be included) eats everyday and throws their wasted food or scraps into the trash can. That is why Green Golfer Foundation feels so strongly that golf courses should spread the word and lead by example by composting food wastes. Simply put, landfilled food wastes are the major source of greenhouse pollutants, period.
Food waste composting is regulated in most states, so there are, most likely, some regulations to learn and to follow, usually based upon the amount of wastes being composted, where the wastes come from and where they're going to be used. At Dairy Creek GC, we use vessel composters that are certified for food waste composting, and we also use worm bins to digest food wastes into vermicompost.
A few communities have a municipal composting operation that accepts food wastes, so it is possible to divert food wastes from the landfill in that manner. Our community does not have such a facility, so we do our own composting. We want the compost, and the vermicompost, anyway, because we use it to make compost tea with which we reduce our fertilizer and pesticide use and costs.
Oh, by the way, in case you were counting on golf course trees to absorb all the CO2 produced on site...A single adult tree absorbs approximately 48 pounds of CO2 per year. Now, calculate your food waste and then figure out how many trees you need to plant in the rough.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Zero waste golf - could it be any easier?
I am an opportunist. I take it the easy way when easy is available. I wasn't always a zero waste golf advocate, I used to be an all purpose zero waste advocate. My associates and I have designed zero waste protocols for numbers of venues and events. I once pitched the potential for a zero waste stadium to the Philladelphia Phillies. "Too hard" they responded. And they were probably right.
Once I saw how golf courses work, I knew that zero waste golf was a lot easier to accomplish than zero waste at a major sports stadium. Then I started zeroing in on zero waste golf. As compared to other sports venues, golf courses have a very small waste stream, and one that is predictable and easily managed. What better place to practice (or demonstrate) zero waste than one in which it's so easy?
"Zero waste" is a very powerful environmental mantra. Indeed, it is surely the most powerful two words we can use in any eco-conversation. Zero waste trumps all other environmental slogans. Zero waste rules!
I like the idea of golf courses being environmental leaders in the communities that they serve. I'm sick of hearing how golf courses are such bad eco-citizens, what with their excessive water usage, or their over applications of pesticides, bla, bla, bla. You know what I mean. I like it when golf courses take the environmental fight to their opponents with the most powerful environmental strategy that has ever been devised.
But as an opportunist, what I really like is that zero waste golf is so stinking easy. It's so great to slay the environmental competition without even breaking a sweat. And then, when the other sports facilities try to copy zero waste golf's success, it's going to be so much harder for them.
Once I saw how golf courses work, I knew that zero waste golf was a lot easier to accomplish than zero waste at a major sports stadium. Then I started zeroing in on zero waste golf. As compared to other sports venues, golf courses have a very small waste stream, and one that is predictable and easily managed. What better place to practice (or demonstrate) zero waste than one in which it's so easy?
"Zero waste" is a very powerful environmental mantra. Indeed, it is surely the most powerful two words we can use in any eco-conversation. Zero waste trumps all other environmental slogans. Zero waste rules!
I like the idea of golf courses being environmental leaders in the communities that they serve. I'm sick of hearing how golf courses are such bad eco-citizens, what with their excessive water usage, or their over applications of pesticides, bla, bla, bla. You know what I mean. I like it when golf courses take the environmental fight to their opponents with the most powerful environmental strategy that has ever been devised.
But as an opportunist, what I really like is that zero waste golf is so stinking easy. It's so great to slay the environmental competition without even breaking a sweat. And then, when the other sports facilities try to copy zero waste golf's success, it's going to be so much harder for them.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Composting fundamentals are essential to zero waste golf
The heart of an effective zero waste golf program is composting, espcially when food wastes are added to the compost. Composting can be easy and complicated all at the same time. The following link opens to a very good resource for information regarding composting, vermiculture, compost tea and other related topics.
If I had more time, I'd write more about the topic, but I'd rather get back to reading the link.
http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/index.htm
If I had more time, I'd write more about the topic, but I'd rather get back to reading the link.
http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/index.htm
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Zero Waste Golf for an Hour a day
My daily chores chores at the zero waste park take me about an hour to perform. First I check the compost temperature in each of our two earth tub vessel composters. The earth tubs are sweet. they operate quietly and efficiently, the big stainless steel auger mixing the whole vessel in minutes. Today I added some grass clippings and water to the mix. I'm expecting the temperature to rise above 120 degrees F.
Today I cleaned out the Jenny's composter. Albert's guys sprayed tea through their big sprayer today, I heard they only had to clean out the spray head filters once during the job. Anyway, all I really did was make sure the composter was full of water. That didn't hardly take a minute. I did throw 4 or 5 buckets of compost tea dreggs out onto the new landscape we have around the composter area.
I checked the worms and sprayed the hose on their pile just to give them a drink. They've eaten almost all the lettuce that was on top of them a couple of days ago.
Today I cleaned out the Jenny's composter. Albert's guys sprayed tea through their big sprayer today, I heard they only had to clean out the spray head filters once during the job. Anyway, all I really did was make sure the composter was full of water. That didn't hardly take a minute. I did throw 4 or 5 buckets of compost tea dreggs out onto the new landscape we have around the composter area.
I checked the worms and sprayed the hose on their pile just to give them a drink. They've eaten almost all the lettuce that was on top of them a couple of days ago.
When I was done checking on the worms, I went up to the maintenance shop to talk to Albert about telling the food guys that the worms and vessel composters are ready and available for their kitchen scraps and food wastes.
That's the typical day in the life of the model Green Golfer Foundation volunteer. About an hour a day.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Adding biology to the soil. Germs and worms, a photo primer
The major role of soil biology is to decompose organic materials in the root zone mix (or soil), including the cells of their recently dead microbial colleagues. It is precisely this turnover of root tissues and microbial cells that releases organically bound N and P as plant available, inorganic ("mineral") forms. This so called mineralization process is the essence of what soil microbial activity is all about. Yes, they do bring about other important processes, some beneficial and some detrimental, but their primary benefit is to decompose organic materials, make more microbial cells and synthesize some soil organic matter (humus) along the way.
Being that they're microscopic, we don't often get to see what microbes look like. But they are amazingly diverse and beautiful. In one gram of compost tea, there are billions of individuals and thousands of different species present.
Nematodes are microscopic worms. They can be very beautiful.
Below are pics of red wiggler compost worms. They're different from earthworms in that they're surface crawlers. They live in the area between the soil surface and organic materials covering the soil. If you want to grow microbes to add to your soil, vermicomposting with red worms is the best way to do it.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Exclusive unpublished photos of World's First ZerO Waste Golf Course
Welcome to Dairy Creek Golf Course, the first zero waste golf course in the world
These are the two Earth Tub vessell composters we are using to compost green and food wastes. You can see our wooden bins, where we hold wood chips, grass clippings and curing compost.
Our worm bin is a recycled fiberglass trough 16 ft long, 4 ft wide and 2ft deep. it's divided into 8 foot troughs. It was once used on a commercial fish dock in Morro Bay to maintain live slime eels while they were processed for live shipping to Korea.. Right now, we're only using one side for worms, while storing harvested castings on the other. Considering that worms double every 90 days, probably won't be long before we use both sides for worms.
You can see our worm casting harvester. It's a tube of 1/4 screen that rolls on caster wheels in those plywood inverted wedge shapes. You put in a bucket load of material from the worm bin into the top side of the slightly sloped tube and rotate by hand. All the great vermicompost and castings under 1/4 inch shakes out into a trough under the screen tube for collection. Undigested food and anything larger than 1/4 and all worms roll out the other end into a trash can. The can, filled with worms and clumps of vermicompost larger than the screen gets dumped back into the bin. Eventually, the density of worms to vermicompost in the bin becomes optimal to efficient food waste consumption.
Next I'll show you our compost tea operation
Compost tea is made by generating bubbles into a vessel of water that has a quantity of compost, worm castings, and some microbe food such as kelp, humate or sugar. Bubble the water for 24 hours, and you have a microbial soup called compost tea. These disks are air defusers to create bubbles in the tank. We chose to make this bubbling system easily removable when we clean the tank, so we used a cam-lock connector on a flexible hose.
This is the cart we made to transport food wastes from the kitchen. You can see how the wooden top is hinged and has a hasp installed in front to keep the raccoons out at night. We hook it up to the bag straps on the back of a golf cart and it makes a great trailer to transport from kitchen to our composter demonstration area. The kitchen staff fills it during the day, and early the next morning we empty it, rinse it clean and return it to the back of house.
This is the zero waste demonstration park as seen from number 8 tee (par 3, 100 yarder over a pond - green to left of picture.) The composters are behind the pumphouse barn. From this vantage, the worms and tea brewers are behind the fence on this side of the barn. We chose to be close to the pumphouse because we plan to inject tea through the irrigation system all over the course.
I'm glad I finally figured out how to share these pictures of our zero waste set up at Dairy Creek Golf Course in San Luis Obispo California.. I hope you enjoy being the first to see them.
This is the view from the clubhouse deck looking out over number 9 green, with one of seven extinct volcanos which surround the golf course
These are the two Earth Tub vessell composters we are using to compost green and food wastes. You can see our wooden bins, where we hold wood chips, grass clippings and curing compost.
The next pictures show our worm set up
Our worm bin is a recycled fiberglass trough 16 ft long, 4 ft wide and 2ft deep. it's divided into 8 foot troughs. It was once used on a commercial fish dock in Morro Bay to maintain live slime eels while they were processed for live shipping to Korea.. Right now, we're only using one side for worms, while storing harvested castings on the other. Considering that worms double every 90 days, probably won't be long before we use both sides for worms.
You can see our worm casting harvester. It's a tube of 1/4 screen that rolls on caster wheels in those plywood inverted wedge shapes. You put in a bucket load of material from the worm bin into the top side of the slightly sloped tube and rotate by hand. All the great vermicompost and castings under 1/4 inch shakes out into a trough under the screen tube for collection. Undigested food and anything larger than 1/4 and all worms roll out the other end into a trash can. The can, filled with worms and clumps of vermicompost larger than the screen gets dumped back into the bin. Eventually, the density of worms to vermicompost in the bin becomes optimal to efficient food waste consumption.
Next I'll show you our compost tea operation
This is a 100 gallon brewer. It is owned by Jenny @ Central Coast Compost Tea Co, of Cayucos CA, one of our founding partners. Jenny brews a fresh certified organic product under license from Natures Solution. Below, the 500 gallon brewer we're building this week. The vessel is a cone bottomed 500 gal tank that was once a wash water separator recycler set up.
Compost tea is made by generating bubbles into a vessel of water that has a quantity of compost, worm castings, and some microbe food such as kelp, humate or sugar. Bubble the water for 24 hours, and you have a microbial soup called compost tea. These disks are air defusers to create bubbles in the tank. We chose to make this bubbling system easily removable when we clean the tank, so we used a cam-lock connector on a flexible hose.
We're going to put the compost mix into this screen container made out of five gallon buckets and window screen. It holds around 8 gallons of compost mix. We'll suspend it into the vessel of actively aereated water.
This is the cart we made to transport food wastes from the kitchen. You can see how the wooden top is hinged and has a hasp installed in front to keep the raccoons out at night. We hook it up to the bag straps on the back of a golf cart and it makes a great trailer to transport from kitchen to our composter demonstration area. The kitchen staff fills it during the day, and early the next morning we empty it, rinse it clean and return it to the back of house.
This is the zero waste demonstration park as seen from number 8 tee (par 3, 100 yarder over a pond - green to left of picture.) The composters are behind the pumphouse barn. From this vantage, the worms and tea brewers are behind the fence on this side of the barn. We chose to be close to the pumphouse because we plan to inject tea through the irrigation system all over the course.
I'm glad I finally figured out how to share these pictures of our zero waste set up at Dairy Creek Golf Course in San Luis Obispo California.. I hope you enjoy being the first to see them.
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