Pilot Project for Value-Added Product Development from Solid ...

To achieve the economic feasibility of innovative waste management systems on a broad
scale basis, other product development and new markets should be aggressively explored
and promoted, including use of waste solids for energy generation. With respect to soil
amendments and compost byproducts, for these technologies to significantly impact the
economic feasibility of alternative swine waste treatment technologies, it will require the
development of new market outlets or an increased use in current markets. Producers of
soil amendments and compost products should engage in large scale, effective marketing
campaigns to realize greater market shares, but overall investments in such production
should be conservative to ensure that supply does not outstrip market demand. 10 .
Potential for Transferability of Results and Conclusions
Several issues have been identified that should help with future work involving soil
amendments from animal waste solids. The most important issues in marketing compost
and gaining public acceptance relate in different ways to quality control. So long as
compost is perceived as having inconsistent quality, it will not gain wide acceptance for
many potential uses. There may also be an unfavorable perception of swine manure as a
feedstock for soil amendments, at least for some uses. Feedstock biases have been found
to be the greatest marketing challenge facing the compost industry 11 . For soil amendments
to gain wide acceptance a system of measuring properties of compost and providing
guarantees to the users of the quality characteristics will be essential. Programs such as the
U.S. Composting Council’s (USCC) Seal of Testing Assurance (STA) can dramatically
improve how compost products are defined and provide assurance of characteristics and
quality 12 . One of the most important factors to consider in increasing the use of swine
waste derived soil amendments is the need to educate residents and businesses on the
benefits and proper use of these materials, and to encourage technical assistance providers
to help with this education and outreach.
Moreover, the economic analysis provides standardized production costs and will help in
evaluating overall construction costs and benefits to implementing soil amendment
production alongside or as a compliment to innovative swine waste management systems.
Challenges, Failures, and Improvements for Future Projects
The project faced several challenges that inhibited the swift implementation of the
byproduct production processes, including delays related to the construction of the
structure to house the vermicompost project, which has delayed production of materials for
technical assessment. A performance assessment methodology and plan for use of the
Super Soils soil amendments on NCDOT projects also may have helped to guarantee that
Super Soil byproducts would be delivered for use and testing in the Roadside
Beautification Program. However, delays and budget constraints that prevented
10 Humenik et al. Final Report, Development of Marketable By-Products From Alternative Swine Waste
Treatment Technologies, Submitted to the Golden Leaf Foundation, July 2005.
11 Alexander, R. 2000. Compost marketing trends in the U.S. BioCycle, Vol.41, No.7, pp. 64-66.
12 Coker, C.; N. Goldstein. 2004. Characterizing the composting industry. BioCycle, Vol.45, No.12, pp. 20-
22.
11