Montgomery County Compost Facility: Online Tour

Compost Facility home


	Tub Grinding


	Material Delivery


	Composting


	Screening


	Bagging

Screening

By late summer, the now decomposed material is sufficiently composted and is ready to be screened for sale. The Montgomery County Composting Facility uses two screener machines to improve the quality of the finished material before bagging. The screening process removes larger pieces that have not yet broken down, as well as plastic, tennis balls, pet toys, and bits of garden hose and other items that act as "contaminants". Screening work continues over the winter and into spring.

Plastic poses the biggest problem at the Montgomery County Composting Facility. Even though residents are required to use paper bags or reusable containers in the curbside collection program, plastic bags continue to slip into the collected material. As the tub grinders and the turners break the yard trim into ever-smaller pieces, one plastic bag easily becomes tens and then hundreds of tiny shreds. These not only need to be screened out of the finished compost, but are blown around by wind, littering the facility.

Composting material must be screened for plastic bags and tennis balls before bagging

Last edited: 5/6/2008