A Class II composting facility, Paygro receives food waste from a variety of sources including ConAgra, Dole Fresh Vegetables, and Whole Foods Market and converts this refuse into usable products such as compost, potting soil, mulch and humus.
Paygro is a division of the Garick LLC in Cleveland. Bob Schanz, vice president of operations for Garick, said the work done at Paygro is a contribution to the environment that should be celebrated.
“We believe in it,” Schanz said. “We were doing the sustainable thing before people were waving the flag for it.”
Employing between 25 and 55 employees, depending on the season, Paygro boasts a line of more than 50 products.
Schanz said large businesses that process food create a regular waste stream of off spec and damaged food materials. Paygro utilizes post consumer food waste as well by collecting food refuse from cafeterias and restaurants.
“Food waste is a very heavy part of the waste stream,” Schanz said. “If you look at your garbage can at home, what’s really giving that garbage can weight are the food scraps.”
As a Class II plant, Paygro composts manures and yard waste in addition to food waste. The end result is the creation of thousands of truckloads of compost each year. This compost, as well as a wide variety of other soil amending and horticultural products, are processed and packaged at the South Charleston facility.
There are two other Class II composting facilities in Clark County: the ODOT Clark County Harmony Outpost, also in South Charleston, and the Springfield Waste Water Treatment Plant in Springfield.
History
Paygro’s origins date back to 1972 when Carl Kipp Jr., then the executive vice president of the Ohio Feed Lot, decided to make use of one of the site’s more copious resources — cow manure. The savvy entrepreneur started a composting area in a corner of the feed lot and began packaging and selling manures. Soon, Paygro had earned a sterling reputation for producing quality horticultural products.
In 1978, Paygro Inc. was formed as a division of the Mead Paper Company. The company is one of the oldest composting facilities of its kind in the U.S.
Holding three patents for composting processes and equipment, Kipp is credited with pioneering many of the processes that Paygro has used through the years. Kipp stayed on when the business was sold to Garick in 1998 and continued working there until his death in 2009 at the age of 80.
Process
Perhaps surprisingly, the composting process is not an odorous one when done correctly. Schanz said when food waste is brought into the receiving area at Paygro, the first step is to amend the food refuse with wood mulch. Paygro staff works to create the correct ratios and moisture content to start the composting process.
“If you’ve ever had a pile of grass clippings in your backyard and you put your hands in there and it feels warm, that’s bacteria growing ... and reproducing,” Schanz said. “You want the good bacteria to thrive ... It is eating the food waste and breaking it down into a humus ... The good bacteria is eating the organic compounds that would produce odor if you didn’t handle it right.”
Grinding the waste helps this breaking down process by creating more surface area. Once the bacterium has done its job, larger pieces within the compost are screened out. These larger pieces generally consist of wood waste that will be used later. The entire process takes six to nine months from start to finish.
The facility’s ability to handle large quantities of food waste was greatly increased when a new, 900-HP electric grinder went online in April 2007. Quieter and more efficient, the grinder has the added benefit of giving off fewer emissions than grinders that run on diesel fuel.
Products
Paygro creates and packages products for the novice gardener as well as for serious gardeners and large scale horticultural projects. A high performance soil that will be used in the green roof project at the new Springfield hospital is a Paygro product. According to Schanz, this soil is designed to last for 30 to 50 years.
Other products include Black Satin Mulch and Organic Valley soils, as well as cedar and hardwood mulch, humus and ready mixed potting soil. The company also makes and packages composted manure products, including a cow manure product that is marketed as “Moo-Nure.”
In addition to its commercial composting service, Paygro also offers a mobile grinding service and Trommel and Star screening services.
Sustainability
The issue of sustainability is a top priority for Paygro.
“It’s a sustainable thing to take the food waste and compost it into a humus that is used to grow more plants ... to complete that cycle,” Schanz said.
There is an economic component to this ideal of sustainability, he said.
“To be sustainable, the economics have to work,” Schanz said. “Landfill rates are so cheap in Ohio that we have to be attractive by keeping our rates low here. If you go out to California or out to the East Coast, there’s a lot more food waste composting done because the landfills there are really expensive.”
For Paygro, such sustainability has social consequences as well. Creating a work environment that encourages long term commitment is another important priority for the company. Schanz, himself a 25-year veteran at Garick, said there are several Paygro employees who have been with the company for 30 years or more.
“We see ourselves as an alternative to the landfill,” said Schanz, adding that composting has increased dramatically in the past two years.
As the company grows, the hope is that retail businesses that bring their food waste to Paygro will later stock the packaged product that contains a fraction of that waste. Schanz calls this a “closed loop”
“Years ago, we had to explain more about what we did,” Schanz said. “There is an awareness now ... and it’s celebrated.”
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