Washington trucking company opens composting facility

Brady Trucking Co. is operating a new food waste composting system at its existing mulch production facility in Shelton, Washington.

The composting facility uses a covered aerated static pile process (CASP) with technology and facility design services provided by Green Mountain Technologies (GMT), Bainbridge Island, Washington.

“Once we looked closely at the numbers and conceptual operating plans, we realized this was just the natural next step for our business,” says Evan Brady, co-owner of Brady Trucking. “For years, we’ve been purchasing compost in bulk to have availability for our mulch clients who also need compost. Now we’re able to efficiently make our own compost while keeping food waste out of landfills.”

Brady Trucking has run a successful mulch production facility and trucking company for decades. The company saw an opportunity to meet the growing need to divert food waste from landfills, driven in part by Washington’s Senate Bill 1799.

RELATED: An academic affair

The new composting facility is designed and permitted to process 50,000 tons per year (TPY), with current constructed peak capacity of 30,000 TPY. Food waste currently comes from third-party collection services in Thurston County, Washington.

“To design, permit and build a large food waste composting facility in one of the wettest regions of the U.S., all in less than one year, was a pretty impressive achievement,” says Ashley Brady, co-owner of Brady Trucking. “We are grateful for the team at Green Mountain Technologies—they’ve done a great job on the overall facility design, including stormwater management and on-going operating support.”

The aerated compost processing system is built under a covered roof. Compost feedstock materials are blended and formed into piles over the aeration outlets built into the concrete floor, and then the material is capped with a “bio layer” of wood mulch to contain odors.

“We have really enjoyed working with Evan, Ashley and the team at Brady Trucking,” Green Mountain Technologies Director of Consulting Jeff Gage says. “They saw this opportunity and took a very pragmatic approach to get it operational on an ambitious timeline with our help. We see this facility as a model for other mulch grinding operations to follow.” 

The WebMacs aeration system from Green Mountain Technologies is computer-controlled to optimize temperatures across multiple zones to accelerate the composting process while keeping pile temperatures at the optimal levels. This reduces the need for mechanical turning of the material, speeds up the process and ensures low operating costs of the facility, while mostly eliminating odors and anaerobic gas emissions such as nitrous oxide and methane.