Environmental Science

Instructor: Mark Aronson

Laboratory Fieldtrip: Compost Center

Please answer the following questions:

1. What is composting? Summarize the processes used at this compost facility.

2. What "wastes/waste streams" are composted at this facility? What would normally happen to these wastes if they were not composted?

3. Is this compost facility "cost effective"? Support your position with information obtained during your visit.

4. Composting is a process facilitated by our activities. What would composting be called in the ecosystem as an ecological process? What functional group of organsisms is involved in

this process?

5. What environmental benefits are associated with composting? Is composting a sustainable activity?

6. What materials in your household wastestream could be composted (i.e. food wastes entering your trash or garbage disposal)? Are you currently composting this material?

7. Why should you reduce your waste entering the trash? Why should garbage disposals not be used?

8. What would happen to the sewer sludge (from the Wastewater Treatment Plant) if it were not composted? Why is composting this material environmentally desirable?