Firm Seeks Approval in Woodbridge, N.J., to Turn Food Waste into Fertilizer

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A Massachusetts-based company is seeking approval from county officials to build a processing plant in the Keasbey section of the township that would take food waste and convert it into fertilizer.

Oct. 6—WOODBRIDGE, N.J. — A Massachusetts-based company is seeking approval from county officials to build a processing plant in the Keasbey section of the township that would take food waste and convert it into fertilizer.


Mining Organics Management, a progressive environmental technology company, filed a plan of inclusion application seeking to be added to the Middlesex County Solid Waste Plan.


By doing so, it would be allowed to apply to the state Department of Environmental Protection to become a Class C, or vegetative waste-recycling facility.


The facility would be located at 75 Crows Mill Road in a portion of a warehouse owned by Research Technology Development.


Tom Buchanan, chief financial officer for Mining Organics Management, said his company's facility would take food waste and use enclosed vessels to turn it into fertilizer in both liquid and pellet form.


"We are looking to assist the state of New Jersey in their long-term objective of reducing the amount of waste that goes into landfills," said Buchanan in a telephone interview yesterday.


Both Woodbridge officials and the Middlesex County Solid Waste Advisory Council support the project.


Richard J. Hills, who heads the Division of Solid Waste Management for the Middlesex County Department of Planning, said he supports the project because all the composting is going to be done in vessels, and no activities will take place outdoors.


In the event there are emissions generated from the process, there are air-pollution controls in place that would clean them before they could be released into the atmosphere.


The application calls for the facility to accept up to 500 tons per day of source-separated food waste, but Buchanan said he expects the first few years to handle between 250 and 300 tons a day.


If the company receives all the necessary approvals, Buchanan said it hopes to begin construction early next year and begin operating in early 2006.


He said facility would create approximately 30 new jobs.


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