Content area
Full Text
RAISED on a golf course, son of the superintendent, and schooled in agronomy and turf management, Mike Merner started his own landscaping business in southern Rhode Island in 1972. Over time, he became disillusioned with the chemical intensive approach and grew more convinced that soil should be treated with biologically active materials -- such as compost.
In 1977, Merner purchased the original 18 acres of land in Charlestown that has become Earth Care Farm. He started composting trimmings from his landscaping projects with bedding material from nearby horse farms. The compost was used to improve the soil for his organic crops. "I got addicted to making compost," Merner says with a smile.
Although animal bedding was readily available, Merner needed additional carbonaceous materials to produce a good compost mix. At that time, landfill tip fees were so low that communities in this area did not find it cost-effective to separate their leaves from trash, even when Merner offered a zero tip fee at his compost site. Only his town of Charlestown delivered brush chips to the farm. But over time, economic and regulatory pressures changed, and towns began bringing their leaves to Earth Care Farm.
The size of the compost site grew slowly until the hurricane years in the late 1980's. The sudden abundance of wood chips from downed trees and cleared brush prompted Merner to experiment with composting other clean organic materials. His main criteria for receiving organics was that they be free of physical contaminants, heavy metals and unacceptable levels of any pollutants. The availability of seafood scrap from area processors gave him the idea to develop a "fish and chip mix." By 1994, Earth Care Farm, now 23 acres, had grown to a business that processes 10,000 to 20,000 cubic yards of material per year, depending on availability.
Earth Care Farm has composted diverse materials such as shredded newspaper from a bankrupt recycled wallboard manufacturer, bone meal gelatin from a photographic film processor, mazorb (a corn cob grit from a nail polishing company), zoo animal bedding, papermill fiber from a tea bag manufacturer and various food processing by-products. The farm also incorporates chicken manure with bedding into...