MILTON — The Emerald Coast Utility Authority has won the Solid Waste Association of North America’s 2016 SWANA Gold Excellence Award.
The authority — recognized for its biosolids composting facility — will receive the award Aug. 23 during the organization’s annual conference in Indianapolis.
ECUA has tested the composting program since November and officially opened it in March, according to the authority’s Public Information Officer Jim Roberts.
The process, he said, starts with yard waste collection and ends with commercial-grade bloom and mulch. Composting this way, Roberts said, replaces an old method of creating cakes of bio material, which were discarded. The method potentially reduces natural gas cost and produces a commercial-grade product.
“ECUA is utilizing yard trash and biosolids to create an environmentally beneficial compost,” Randall Rudd, ECUA deputy executive director said. “This eliminates the need to landfill yard trash and biosolids, and provides a valuable compost resource to residents and businesses in the ECUA service area.”
The compost material, called bloom, has a light, earthy smell. “Good compost smells like dirt,” Roberts said.
Meanwhile, ECUA is preparing to resume its recycling program as soon as the interim material recycling facility at the Perdido landfill is complete. ECUA broke ground on the facility Feb. 12.
The 53,460-square-foot facility will house the material sorting equipment, which is placed on a land area of 120,000 square feet, according to Roberts.
It is projected to handle 165 tons of recyclable materials from Escambia and Santa Rosa counties per day, with an estimated annual capacity of 40,000 tons.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: ECUA’s award-winning composting continues as recycling nears resumption