UMaine opens new campus composting facility

ORONO, Maine (AP) — The University of Maine is opening an advanced composting facility where food waste from all of the Orono campus's dining halls will be recycled.

The university is purchasing a 10-foot by 40-foot enclosed, automated composting unit called the EarthFlow 40, manufactured by Green Mountain Technologies of Washington state.

It has the potential to convert more than one ton of organic waste per day from campus dining facilities — from potato peels and lettuce leaves to meat scraps — into a rich soil additive that will be used in UMaine landscaping and on university crop fields.

The university's dining services and UMaine Cooperative Extension collaborated on the composting effort.