Reference
Product(s)
penergetic k
Partner
Solutions Penergetic, Eric Schaffner/Canada
Customer
City of Sherbrooke/Canada
The City of Sherbrooke (population 250,000) decided to initiate a city-wide composting operation. The problem was that, after two years of collecting leaves, and other raw materials from householdes, their municipal works yard was full of compostable material which was not breaking down / decomposing properly (and they were running out of storage room!). The City of Sherbrooke was seeking a solution: “to compost the collected material as fast as possible to create space for new raw materials to arrive.”
The material, after 1 year of storage, was only at the beginning of the composting process. There were large blocks of compact leaves almost intact. The raw material arrived in packs of compacted leaves.
Situation and application
- 2000 tonnes of leaves stored for 1 year
- 50gr of penergetic k per metric ton, applied with sprinkler
The material was put into windrows, half of which were sprinkled with penergetic k. The windrows were mixed with a Bacchus windrower and turned again after 15 days.
Temperature of the windrows after one week
- Control: 40°C
- penergetic-treated: 60°C
Control
Penergetic treated
Compostable material in the works yard
Material 21 days after treated with penergetic k (composting process was concluded)
Results
- Successful composting in 21 days
- No odour from penergetic-treated windrow
- Once started, the composting process continued even temperatures were falling
Since the “through put” of compostable material was increased, the City decided to treat all material to be composted with penergetic k. The finished compost is used for the City’s own purposes – for flower pots, urban landscaping, etc.