Composting at AEDC helps to decrease team members’ environmental footprint

Green Team captains gather Feb. 6, 2015 at compost bins that are placed throughout the AEDC industrial area to receive instructions on taking care of the bins. The AEDC compost program began last year as part of an Air Force grant. By composting food scraps and hand towel wastes, AEDC will divert as much as six tons of material per year from being sent to the landfill. (U.S. Air Force photo/Jacqueline Cowan)

Composting at AEDC helps to decrease team members’ environmental footprint

Published April 4, 2016
By Kraig Smith
AEDC/PA

ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, TENN. -- The compost program that began last year at AEDC through an Air Force grant is continuing to thrive and has achieved widespread participation helping to decrease team members' environmental footprint.

There have been 25 compost bins placed at 11 locations throughout AEDC. More than 40 active participants signed up for the compost program, but more are participating through food scrap collection in kitchens and common areas.
The bins, which measure 33 inches in diameter and 33 inches in height, can hold 80 gallons of compost.

Personnel are encouraged to dispose of compostable items in personal receptacles, such as plastic coffee canisters, and to take their composts to the compost bin when they take their trash.

Currently personnel may take their composts to bins located at buildings 100, 430, 740, 877, 912, 938, 939, 1077, 1099, 1103, 1476 and 1477. Items to be composted should be kitchen scraps (except for meat, fish, bones, fatty foods such as cheese, oils, etc.), coffee grounds and filters, tea bags, egg shells, fruits and vegetables, flowers, plants, bread, hair, napkins and paper towels.

Trash, chemicals, plastics, glass, metals and weeds-to-seeds should not be placed in the compost bins.

By composting food scraps and hand towel wastes, AEDC will divert as much as six tons of material per year from being sent to the landfill. This translates into a cost saving for the Air Force and is environmentally beneficial.

This innovative program has no operating costs to the Air Force beyond the initial monetary grant to buy the composting equipment. The labor of scrap collection is done on a volunteer basis by dedicated employees, and the compost generated from the process has been used to improve the soil in participant's home gardens and landscaping projects.

If anyone wishes to participate in the program and does not currently have a bin, they are still available and can be set up at a convenient location.

Call 454-4284 with questions about the composting program.

-AEDC-