Earth Smart's ESOC Product Helps Eliminate Foul Odour from Composting Facility

Earth Smart Solutions offers products to help with your compost and landfill needs whether they are big or industrial scale or small such as your backyard composting pile.

Our products are made of organic ingredients, adding essential nutrients to the compost pile for optimal results. Our landfill products can be used in various ways to break up waste, plus we offer environmentally friendly products to neutralize and destroy odours.

We recently were able to assist one of our clients to resolve an odour issue resulting from an industrial scale exterior composting site.

Larger cities, such as Calgary and Edmonton, have indoor composting facilities. In smaller centers and rural areas, composting is often done outside, above ground.

Composting is a 6 step process. Following is a simplified version of the process that the City of Calgary follows at their indoor composting facility (visit this link for the complete article):

Image Courtesy of City of Calgary

Step 1 - Shred the material

Food and yard waste arrives at the composting facility. The material is shredded to optimize decomposition. Front end loaders and conveyors move the material into large composting vessels.

Image Courtesy of City of Calgary

Step 2 - In-vessel composting

The material stays in the composting vessels for 21 days. During this time the pipes that extend beneath each vessel pump air into the material, keeping the microorganisms that break down the material happy. Vessels are monitored for conditions such as temperature, moisture content and oxygen levels. This keeps the decomposition process running smoothly.

The City of Calgary, at their indoor plant, has mechanisms in place to monitor:

· Odour control: Odour management is one of The City of Calgary's main priorities. They've invested in odour control systems to filter out odours. Large biofilters are used to reduce odours before exhausting air from the building. Air from both the active composting and curing phases is directed through the biofilters.

· Eliminating pathogens: The compost pile will reach temperatures of at least 55 degrees Celsius. These sustained temperatures are difficult to achieve in backyard composters. This step is important because it kills off pathogens like e-coli and salmonella that might be found in materials like uncooked meats and pet waste.

Step 3 - Screening

The composted material is screened to as small as 12 millimetres, producing top quality compost. This allows the removal of any contaminants that still remain which are then transported to the landfill.

Step 4 - Curing and cool down

After screening, the compost material enters the curing building where it remains for another 21 days. The material is turned over and mixed every five days to introduce oxygen and encourage further decomposition. Pipes in the floor draw air in and through the material to further enhance break down. After curing, the material is moved to the compost storage facility.

Step 5 - Final product testing

The composting facility will produce a Category A Compost that is safe to use anywhere, including farms, gardens, parks and nurseries. The compost is tested to ensure it meets the required standards and criteria.

Step 6 - Sales

Once certified, the Category A Compost is ready for distribution. Compost is a sustainable, nutrient-rich soil amendment used to enrich our soils.

The majority of the City of Calgary's finished compost will be sold in bulk to companies such as landscape soil blenders and compost baggers. The proceeds from the sale of the compost help reduce the processing cost and lower the Green Cart program fee.

A portion of the finished compost will be made available to the community for free. This includes being made available for community gardens and through select giveaway days to the public. Compost will be available in 2018 and the details on how the giveaway days will occur will be finalized over the next year. Source: The City of Calgary: Organic Composting Facility - Composting Process

Smaller composting sites may not have the facilities to do indoor composting, so they will do exterior composting. When composting, issues with odour may arise if there is insufficient air being circulated in the material.

Our client that we were able to help with their odour issue at their outdoor composting facility, purchased our ESOC (Earth Smart Odour Control) product.

ESOC is a proprietary blend of essential nutrients and synergists formulated with odour neutralizing and destroying effects. The components in ESOC provide continuous control of odour problems including malodours such as urine, feces, decaying food, garbage areas, waste sewage areas and body odour. 

ESOC will be your silent worker providing 24 hour protection neutralizing obnoxious odours for months on end. 

This product is highly concentrated and is available in 2 litre and 20 litre containers.

After purchasing a 20 litre container and applying and experiencing success, our client has since purchased a second 20 litre container and are happy to report that the odour was neutralized.

Visit our website to learn more about our line of compost and landfill solutions: Compost Starter, Energize Stubble and Trash Digester, Micro-Nutrient Bio Stimulant, and Odour Control Product.

Please call us at 1-866-444-7174 or email us at info@earth-smart-solutions.com if you have any questions on our products or if you are looking for environmentally friendly products for any needs you may have. We would love to hear from you!