BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - IT is often said that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and this saying is evident in St. Kitts where our food waste, grass and other vegetation that were once seen as just garbage is being transformed into fertiliser at the Conaree Landfill through a process called composting.
Composting is the process by which composite material breaks down and recycled as a fertiliser and soil amendment.
In an interview with SKNVibes, Operations Supervisor of the Solid Waste Management Corporation, Wilmon McCall gave an overview on the composting process at the Landfill.
“At the Solid Waste Management, we have embarked on a long term basis using mostly grass and vegetation that comes to the Landfill. We also use a lot of the food waste from the restaurants and supermarkets. The leftover fruits are also used to make the compost even richer.
“We get compost material together. Over a period of time you keep turning it and you throw waste on it and the heat breaks down the material to where it goes back to mother earth. It is a process that goes over the minimum of about three months, and based on what type of materials that goes in, it goes even deeper.”
He added that after being engaged in the activity for the past few years they are now in the practice of selling the final product.
“We have a pile at the Landfill now that is being sold. We started the compost a few years ago and it is now being sold as fertiliser. We are at a point where we can sift it out, bag it and sell in it to persons at a very cheap price of 73cents per pound.”
McCall also highlighted some of the benefits and profits of having the composting plant at the Landfill.
“The profit we get from the compost in particular is that it diverts stuff from the landfill. There is a thing they call waste diversion...diverting the waste from the Landfill for uses that could benefit you otherwise.
“The other benefit is it reinvigorates the land with fertiliser. When it comes to monetary, we have never done a study to know we have so many workers in it and we have so much money, because the benefits really are waste diversion.”
He also disclosed how many employees they currently use to complete the composting processes.
“We have about five or six staff at the Landfill and we use about three of them on a constant basis on the compost. We have some of the compost on a piece of land there and grow vegetables.”
Compost is a key ingredient in organic farming.
