Alpine Waste & Recycling Produces Enriched Commercial Compost

Alpine Waste & Recycling, Commerce City, Colo., expects to complete processing of its first batch of enriched commercial compost material in June, 2012 at its new composting facility in East Adams County near Bennett, Colo.

Alpine opened its compost facility at the East Regional Landfill in February, 2012, with plans for up to 1,400 cubic yards of marketable end-material per month.

Alpine says it is the first Colorado-based waste hauler to collect and process food waste for composting at its own facility. The curing process has neared its end, the company says, and now Alpine is ready to begin sifting and cleaning the 800 cubic yards of compost windrows.

Alpine President John Griffith, Landfill Manager Jeremy Groves and local dignitaries attended a June 14 press briefing at the facility to provide a first-hand look at the composting process and to show the ways in which Alpine is benefiting the environment.

The company says it meets precise specifications in accordance with regulatory standards. Using a backhoe, Alpine workers load the compost material onto a trommel screen, where a drum perforated with half-inch holes allows material to fall onto two different conveyors. Those conveyors feed a Komptech Hurrikan Windsifter with a vibrating bed and blower that lifts any contaminants such as plastics and foil out of the finished product, and sucks them into a 21-foot roll-off box. Alpine says it is able to process about 20 cubic yards per hour.