EDITORIAL: Have you met Eco?

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OK. WE GET IT. WE COMPOST. Our “system” is about 4’ by 4’ and made of thick plastic. That’s not too technical, right? It seemed like that would do the job. But now the county has gone and bought a bigger one. Much bigger.

The county composting machine even has a name: Ecorich Elite II Composter. What might prove even more important is Eco’s identity as an industrial machine: a “Digester.” Marvel comics, take note.

Our dog-house-size composter doesn’t have a name. But sometimes I’m obliged to empty the compostable food scraps that have filled the jar next to the sink and dump the scraps into the composter in the back yard. And if there’s no one around to hear me, I shout, I lecture, I growl in what I hope is a tone that would frighten away wild animals, especially skunks.

The extraction of scraps from the jar is followed by stirring the compost-in-progress, which is almost always warm. Don’t forget to mix in a thin blanket of leaves before you pop on the top of the composter in a way that avoids spilling rainwater or snow on your feet. All that and another day without skunks.

Eco, our county digester, cost $78,000. County officials believe funds from a grant from the state Department of Environmental Conservation may pay for the machine. There may be revenue from compost and savings from reduced hauling costs once the digester begins to operate at full capacity.

You will still have to separate your food scraps, though the list is comprehensive. Take the scraps to the nearest county transfer station and drop them off there.

If that were the only benefit we could expect, who cares? Make your own compost and put up with the smell the process produces. But here’s the news. Ecorich Elite II Composter process is odorless. At least humans can’t smell it.

It also vastly reduces the volume of food waste that can’t be composted. That should reduce the cost of hauling the non-compost away.

And please, just one more wonky thing: of all the technology packed inside Eco’s green metal shell, it’s Not what this machine offers that’s so important, it’s what the Eco Doesn’t do: It does Not release the potent greenhouse gas called methane.

Methane doesn’t last nearly as long as carbon does in the atmosphere but methane is a more potent greenhouse gas. Much of the methane being generated comes from agriculture in general, including rotting food. Methane also stays closer to the Earth than carbon pollution. If we could cut methane we might slow the rate of climate change.

Let’s face it, even if our digester works exactly as advertised it won’t noticeably change the methane trapped in the atmosphere. But it might change a few minds about the threat from climate change and our ability to slow it.

This big green digester comes from our very own planet. It signals that all of us can do something. Ecorich, the company that makes digesters, says it has sold more than 400 worldwide. But what if local governments could fund 400,000 across this country? Why not $4 million? Is that too much to spend​? People have to eat; they make scraps when they’re done eating. But if not methane-less compost, let’s hear some better ideas. They can be contagious.

In the meantime, congratulations to the county Department of Public Works and all the others who believed in this digester project and helped make it happen.

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