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Going
green: Organic compost company organizes in county
By Carole Brand
Going “green”
is the emphasis of a new organic compost company starting in Coffee County.
Owner Bob McMillan of Oasis, an agricultural organic company and company
Manager Steve Adkison of New Brockton, now have a unique way of channeling
compost organically to turn it into humus, a product that holds four times
more water than regular compost or soil.
Adkison said McMillan always had a “passion for the environment
and this is part of his dream.”
“Bob and our company believes the more waste we can take out of
the landfills, the better everyone, especially our future and our children’s
future, will be because of this,” Adkison said.
To explain the procedure or “recipe” for making the unique
compost product, Ted Hostetler an Arkansas consultant who is a member
of a Mennonite company called Mid-West Bio Systems in Illinois, traveled
to Coffee County this week to instruct Oasis company members on the process.
Mid-West Bio Systems makes the equipment used for the environmentally
sound product and has systems in more than 18 countries worldwide.
“This is not your regular compost people think of made simply of
manure,” Hostetler explained. “And that’s what most
people think when you think of compost. Actually, it’s a special
compost system using a process that is only 25 percent of manure. The
rest can be made up of wood chips, hay, peanut hulls and even clay. Regular
compost has a terrible odor, but this doesn’t.”
Hostetler explained the procedure of making the humus takes from eight
to 12 weeks.
With special equipment used only for this process, the composting system
was discovered by the Mennonites 15 years ago from Austria. The company
startingnear New Brockton will be the first of its kind in Southeast Alabama.
“We help people be successful in this business that helps the environment,”
Hostetler said. “The process begins by making rows of the combined
manure, hay, peanut hulls or wood chips, or whatever you have. It is turned
each day by the special equipment and monitored with daily temperature
checks. We look at the CO2 levels and the temperature levels because the
goal is to make the humus. After many weeks of checking the levels of
carbon dioxide and temperatures, the humus product is sent to a lab and
graded.
Hostetler said humus is an organic material that becomes “odorless,
weedless, and kills bacteria. Humus makes the roots of plants extract
moisture from the soil and puts biological life back into the soil when
used. Since it holds more water than regular compost, it is an excellent
high-intensity organic plant food. People are surprised when they use
it with plants because the plants grow more beautiful and keep their color
and insects are deterred from the plants and gardens that use it.”
The organic procedure, Oasis members say, can be used for lawn maintenance,
homeowners who want their gardens or plants to be maintained better and
longer, gardeners for better vegetables and farmers for growing better
crops.
“This is a product that we hope will also be used by many municipalities,
contractors and lawn sodding companies,” Adkison said. “Also,
to save the landfills that are being used constantly, municipalities can
bring us their limbs they pick up from residents and wood companies can
bring their excess and we’ll use all of this in the compost. This
will save the landfills for the environment, it will also save the municipalities
monies used to pay the landfills. It’s just a win-win situation.”
With land located to start a plant in New Brockton, Adkison said the business
is starting small, but eventually will employ workers as the business
grows.
“The product will be ready by January 1, 2009, for sale by the yard
or tons. As the agriculture business grows, we’ll be able to sell
the product in bags for individuals, but in January, we’ll load
them up with a couple of yards if they want it.”
For more information or how to obtain the product, call Oasis at 1-888-809-3923
at the home office or contact Steve Adkison at 447-0941.
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