United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Solid Waste and
Emergency Response
(5306W)
EPA-530-F-98-023C
September 1998
www.epa.gov/osw
Frost Valley YMCA
Claryville, New York
100% Recovery of Food Discards
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Using a static aerobic composting system, this 6,000-acre residential
educational and recreational facility in the Catskill Mountains
composts 100% of the food discards from its kitchen and dining room. From 1990,
when Frost Valley began its comprehensive waste reduction program, to 1997, the facility
reduced its total solid waste by 53% (by weight). Through food recovery, Frost Valley now
realizes a net savings of $5,200 annually and provides a unique educational opportunity to
thousands of visitors per year.
Program Description
Frost Valley runs environmental education
programs and a summer camp, as well as
hosts conferences throughout the year. About
30,000 people per year stay at this facility for
periods of one to seven nights. During the
summer when camp is in session, the kitchen
serves 800 people a total of approximately
2,400 meals daily.
In the late 1980s, as waste disposal
costs steadily rose, Frost Valley sought
alternatives to landfilling its waste.
When a waste assessment found food
to be the greatest contributor to the
waste stream, Frost Valley decided to
implement a composting program.
Kitchen staff put all food preparation
scraps, meat, bones, and paper towels
in unlined 30-gallon plastic cans in the
kitchen. Guests deposit their leftovers
in an unlined can in the dining room.
Staff stationed in the dining room
during meals educate guests and
help them with food recovery
procedures.
Staff bring filled cans to a
refrigerated room adjacent to the
dining hall. When they have
collected approximately 30 cans,
they empty the cans into a
Knight standard feed mixer, which holds up to
6 tons of material. Staff wash cans after each
use. During the summer with camp in session,
it takes 3-4 days to amass one mixer load of
material; during the fall and winter it takes 2
to 2 1/2 weeks.
In addition to food, Frost Valley YMCA
composts anything organic, including yard
trimmings and lumber. Large items such as
lumber are put in a hydraulic grinder and
shredded before being added to the mixer.
Staff weigh food and other material going
into the mixer and then add an equal amount
of wood chips as a bulking agent. The wood
chips add carbon,creating a proper
carbon/nitrogen ratio. After mixing, materials
are piled in a holding bay in the facility's
Resource Management Center. Wood chips
piled around six-inch PVC perforated pipes
line the bottom of the bay. On top of that,
staff layer the mixer contents and wood chips.
Contact:
Associate Executive Director for Programs
Frost Valley YMCA
2000 Frost Valley Road
Claryville, NY 12725
(914)985-2291
fax:(914)985-0056
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Fans attached to the pipes cool the
piles and add oxygen.
Materials stay in these piles for
approximately 13 weeks until the
volume, moisture, and temperature
levels have all dropped. Staff then use a
front-end loader to put material in a
modified trommel grain
separator, which
separates out larger
fj material that has not
completely broken down.
Material that has gone through
the separator is windrow
composted for 13-15 weeks.
Frost Valley has no contamination
or odor problems. Wood chips control
odor, and because the composter and
bays are inside, there are no vector
problems.
Costs/Benefits
Frost Valley raised $250,000 for
composting equipment and site,
educational facilities and equipment,
and development before beginning the
project. One of the greatest program
costs was building the attached
classroom, greenhouse, and gardens
used to share the program with the
thousands of students and families that
visit Frost Valley every year. Other costs
associated with the program include
electricity, fuel, and miscellaneous
operating costs. This totaled
approximately $500 in FY97.
In 1997, as a result of food
recovery, Frost Valley avoided
approximately $9,700 in waste disposal
costs. It also derives revenue from the
sale of recycled materials such as
cardboard. Since implementation of its
waste reduction program, including
composting, Frost Valley has reduced
the number of trips to the landfill to
empty the dumpster from 16 to 10 per
year. In addition,composting is
continuously used as an educational
program. The educational value of this
program is hard to measure in dollars.
Because it draws visitors to the facility, it
has been very successful in generating
additional dollars for other
environmentally related projects on the
property such as composting toilets
and wood chip technology for heating
buildings. In addition, as guests learn
more about the project and its benefits,
they become more interested and
invested in composting as a method of
handling food discards.
Landscaping projects and an on-
site green house and organic garden
demonstrate uses of finished compost.
Tips for Replication
• Make it easy for guests to
understand your program and its value.
Although it initially cost more to build
the classroom, this educational space is
an important component of
composting at Frost Valley.
Program Summary, 1997
Sector
Number of meals per year
Start date
Dedicated Employees*
Method
Materials collected
Part of comprehensive waste
reduction program?
Total waste generated
Food and other organic
discards generated (TPY)
Results:
Food and other organic
discards recovered (TPY)
Food discards recovered (%)
Total waste recovered (TPY)
Residential education facility
485,000 (estimated)
1990
0.5
Static aerobic piles
Pre-and post-consumer food discards; yard
trimmings; lumber
Yes
190 tons (estimated)
80 tons (estimated)
80 tons (estimated)
100%
100 tons (estimated)
COSTS:
Average composting costs $56 per ton
Average avoided landfill hauling $121 perton
and tipping fee
Net savings** $65 per ton
* This part-time employee works with both on-site composting and trash management.
** Net savings do not reflect the cost of the composting machine, site, and classroom. Frost Valley reports
that these costs have been more than offset via fees paid by visitors.
TPY = tons per year
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