Virginia Department of Corrections Uses Earth Flows To Compost Food Waste At Two Prisons

Virginia Department of Corrections Uses Earth Flows To Compost Food Waste At Two Prisons

The Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) wanted a composting system that was simple, easy and effective at producing compost from food waste. They also wanted a system that was reliable with low maintenance costs.

VADOC needed a system to replace a pre-existing composting system that had been plagued with high maintenance costs.

After researching multiple options, VADOC selected the Earth Flow Composting System from Green Mountain Technologies (GMT) to meet their composting needs. GMT installed two Earth Flow composting systems in September 2013, one at the Deep Meadow Correctional Center in State Farm, Virginia and a second at the White Post Men’s Diversion Center in White Post, Virginia.

The Deep Meadow system is an EF-30 Earth Flow composting system. The EF-30 has a footprint of approximately 30’ x 8’ and can receive up to 1 ton of total feedstocks per day. Deep Meadow is composting food waste for about 1000 inmates from the prison along with wood chips from ground-up pallets.

The automated mixing, aeration and moisture addition systems in the Earth Flow provide excellent process control and optimum conditions for aerobic composting.

VADOC staff collect the food waste in the kitchens in rolling toters. An automated tote tipper is used to mechanically load the food waste into the Earth Flow vessel.

The VADOC team has been very pleased with the Earth Flow’s performance. Here’s what the compost operations manager had to say, “The Earth Flow system is a lot easier. I don’t have to worry about it. I like it. It works for me.”

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