Hi All, Does anyone have an ORCA food waste composter (digestive
system) on campus? For info: http://www.totallygreen.com/how.html
I seem to recall us having a discussion about this a couple of
years ago but could not find anything on the OCUSP Blog.
I have not decided if this is indeed a more
environmentally friendly way to go compared to collecting food
waste to be composted and reused as a soil additive. It seems
counter intuitive to turn a potentially useful waste
into waste water.
If you do have an ORCA system,are you happy with the
efficacy? Has it indeed resulted in cost savings? Or have any savings been
offset by increased maintenance?
Any other thoughts/feedback would be welcome. Thanks -
Stephanie
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Mary-Lee Townsend - Fanshawe College - 05.02.2015
I find myself wondering about this one too Stephanie…we have not looked
into it to any great extent here and I think if we were going to invest in
something like this, it would be an in vessel composter…something that spits
out usable compost at the tail end vs. water to go down the sewage
system.
It just seems to be more sustainable over the long run.
Also, our municipality is doing a lot of work to reduce nutrient loads
into the sewage system…at my previous workplace, we had significant challenges
reducing our nutrient outputs and had to deal with surcharges from the
municipality for that. I don’t know that ORCA would contribute to that,
it says the water is “earth friendly” (whatever that means – they don’t give
more specs online about the water quality i.e. BOD, nutrient loads)…so I know
that our facilities guys would be really nervous about that.
Food for thought…
Cheers, ML
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Tonga Pham - Ryerson University - 05.02.2015
I have a contact at the Metro Convention Centre, they are
using the ORCA. Let me know if you would like the name and contact info.
Regards,
Tonga