B2G Compost will be producing compost for sale from food waste, spent grains, wood chips and sawdust. Owner Kate Wynne is tracking compost she produced last year as she refined the process and mineral balance.
New Winthrop business expected to start in May
Compost is happening in the Methow Valley.
B2G Compost, a new business in Winthrop, has completed its infrastructure and is going through the final permitting process with Okanogan County and the state. B2G owner Kate Wynne expects to begin composting in May and have compost ready for sale in the valley this summer.
Since she started developing the business a year and a half ago, Wynne has refined the composting process and recipe to arrive at the desired balance of carbon and nitrogen.
The compost will spend 10 days in each of three bays. Each bay is equipped with an aerator to maintain the necessary temperature and moisture content; fans run for one minute per hour. After that, compost will cure in windrows for 30 days and be screened before it’s ready for use. Wynne reuses the woodchips in the next batch.
The first bay is the mixing bay, where microbes Wynne calls “my millions of coworkers” digest the sugars, generating heat. Three days at 140 to 150 degrees kills all pathogens, weed seeds and the apple maggot, Wynne said.
Wynne uses a high-tech calculator to determine the ratio of carbon to nitrogen for the optimal reaction, blending fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, spent grains, wood chips and sawdust.
The compost is tested regularly for the balance of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, and for heavy metals.
B2G will capture water in a gutter system for reuse. Solids will be recaptured from runoff and added to incoming feedstock.
When done properly, compost doesn’t smell, Wynne said. The system includes carefully calibrated temperatures, a layer of wood chips that act as a biofilter, and a vapor barrier.
From whales to microns
Wynne recently retired to the Methow Valley after 26 years as a professor of marine biology at the University of Alaska. Although she’s shifted her focus from 50-ton whales to particles just 50 microns in size, she’s an ecologist by training and can apply the same principles to composting, she said.
Part of the impetus for a composting business came from learning that the transfer station in Twisp collects yard waste, then steam treats it to kill apple maggots and their larvae and trucks it to the landfill in Okanogan. “Composting seemed like a no-brainer, that someone had to do it,” Wynne said.
She’s been in discussions with the county about the possibility of eventually diverting the yard waste from the landfill to be composted instead.
Wynne has spent the past year testing her process, using food waste she collects from half a dozen restaurants in Winthrop and spent grain from the Old Schoolhouse Brewery. She’s been hand-turning piles with a pitchfork to aerate them. To ensure there are no herbicides in the compost, B2G will not accept hay or horse manure.
Methow Recycles partnership
When all permitting is complete, B2G will continue to collect commercial food scraps and grains. B2G will also accept food waste and compostables from community members through a partnership with Methow Recycles, which will operate a central collection site.
Methow Recycles has the experience to educate the public to ensure that no contaminants — things like rubber bands, twist ties and plastic produce labels — end up in the compost, Methow Recycles Executive Director Sarah Jo Lightner said. “We want actual compostable material that you would want your vegetables grown in,” she said.
People will be able sign up for Methow Recycles’ composting program through an annual membership or a winter-only pass. Participants will get a 2-gallon countertop pail for compost, which will cost about $2 per pail to dump at the recycling center on a set day each week. Wynne will pick up the compost from the recycling center, since the B2G facility isn’t a public operation. Participants in Methow Recycles’ program will also get a free bag of compost.
Methow Recycles plans to introduce the compost program in the next couple of months. Lightner hopes the program and partnership will show what’s possible in rural communities.
New legislation
Diverting food waste and other compostable materials from the waste stream is key to reducing greenhouse gases. Lightner said. Almost 15% of all greenhouse gases come from methane from landfills, with the largest contributor being discarded organics, primarily food people buy that spoils before they eat it, she said.
In addition, processing food and yard waste at the landfill requires considerable energy. Not only will composting divert organics from landfills, but it will also sequester the carbon in the ground after compost is added to soil, Wynne said.
A comprehensive state law passed in 2022 addresses management of organic materials to reduce methane emissions and greenhouse gases. One of the first requirements is for cities and counties to adopt an ordinance committing to use compost for landscaping, roadside maintenance and erosion control and to use locally sourced compost if possible. The Okanogan County commissioners have adopted an ordinance.
The law also includes goals to reduce the level of organic materials in landfills and to increase the amount of food recovered for human consumption.
Wynne had already completed her training to become a compost operator when the state passed the legislation. She also owned a lot on Horizon Flats Road in a zone where it turned out composting is a permitted use. “It was perfect timing,” she said.
Wynne intends to sell compost only in the Methow Valley. She has been in discussions with the U.S. Forest Service about the possibility of supplying compost for use for remediation in logging projects.
B2G will need an air-quality permit from the state Department of Ecology, but Wynne said the business is currently exempt because the operation is still so small. It also requires a solid-waste permit from Okanogan County Public Health.
