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Veteran Compost
เข้าร่วมเมื่อ 15 ต.ค. 2014
We're a veteran-owned business focused on making great compost and soil blends. We operate 2 compost facilities in Aberdeen, Maryland and Alexandria, Virginia and have a third under construction in Lothian, Maryland.
Everyday we collect food scraps from homes, offices, and businesses throughout Maryland, Washington DC and Northern Virginia. We compost those food scraps along with wood chips and make some pretty good stuff.
You can learn more about our compost operation and products at www.veterancompost.com
Got questions or suggestions? Leave a comment or shoot us a message.
Happy Composting!
FOLLOW US HERE:
Instagram - veteran_compost OR @veteran_compost
Facebook - veterancompost
LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/company/veteran-compost
Twitter - veterancompost
Everyday we collect food scraps from homes, offices, and businesses throughout Maryland, Washington DC and Northern Virginia. We compost those food scraps along with wood chips and make some pretty good stuff.
You can learn more about our compost operation and products at www.veterancompost.com
Got questions or suggestions? Leave a comment or shoot us a message.
Happy Composting!
FOLLOW US HERE:
Instagram - veteran_compost OR @veteran_compost
Facebook - veterancompost
LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/company/veteran-compost
Twitter - veterancompost
How We Compost with University of Maryland Medical System
A big thanks to University of Maryland Medical System and their video team for making this awesome video!
We're proud to have more than a decade working together to compost food scraps together. It's grown from 1 hospital in Baltimore to 7 hospitals across Maryland. Each week their kitchen staff keeps tons of food waste out of the landfill by placing it in our compost bins!
You can learn more about our compost operation and products at www.veterancompost.com
Got questions or suggestions? Leave a comment or shoot us a message.
Happy Composting!
FOLLOW US HERE:
Instagram - @veteran_compost
Facebook - veterancompost
LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/company/veteran-compost
Twitter - @veterancompost
We're proud to have more than a decade working together to compost food scraps together. It's grown from 1 hospital in Baltimore to 7 hospitals across Maryland. Each week their kitchen staff keeps tons of food waste out of the landfill by placing it in our compost bins!
You can learn more about our compost operation and products at www.veterancompost.com
Got questions or suggestions? Leave a comment or shoot us a message.
Happy Composting!
FOLLOW US HERE:
Instagram - @veteran_compost
Facebook - veterancompost
LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/company/veteran-compost
Twitter - @veterancompost
มุมมอง: 159
วีดีโอ
Dos and Don'ts for Horse Manure in the Garden and the Compost Pile
มุมมอง 1.4K2 หลายเดือนก่อน
There are pros and cons to using horse manure and bedding in your garden and compost pile. Make sure you understand a couple of the risks before you find yourself knee deep in it! You can learn more about our compost operation and products at www.veterancompost.com Got questions or suggestions? Leave a comment or shoot us a message. Happy Composting! FOLLOW US HERE: Instagram - @veteran_compost...
Can I Compost Eggs and Eggshells? At home or commercially???
มุมมอง 1622 หลายเดือนก่อน
Composting eggs and eggshells raises concerns about the "S word" aka salmonella. So, can they be safely composted??? You can learn more about our compost operation and products at www.veterancompost.com Got questions or suggestions? Leave a comment or shoot us a message. Happy Composting! FOLLOW US HERE: Instagram - @veteran_compost Facebook - veterancompost LinkedIn - www.linkedin...
Can I Compost What Was Vacuumed - What is in the Vacuum Canister or Vacuum Bag?
มุมมอง 623 หลายเดือนก่อน
Seems simple enough, it's just dust and crumbs right? Unfortunately, household dust and carpeting is full of a scary amount of PFAS, chemicals, and microplastics. So, it's not the kind of material we would want to add to our soil..... You can learn more about our compost operation and products at www.veterancompost.com Got questions or suggestions? Leave a comment or shoot us a message. Happy C...
Can I Compost Hair?? Is Pet Hair or Human Hair ok to compost??
มุมมอง 1643 หลายเดือนก่อน
Can you compost your hair or hair from your pets??? Good Question. One thing we didn't mention - some folks use hair around their garden to help keep away deer (They claim the smell of humans keeps them away). So, keep this in mind as another use for hair if you are trying to keep away deer You can learn more about our compost operation and products at www.veterancompost.com Got questions or su...
Using a Torch to Eliminate Weeds! 🔥 🔥 It's organic, chemical-free, cheap, easy and really fun!!!
มุมมอง 2283 หลายเดือนก่อน
For under $30 you can have a simple way to remove weeds in your garden or lawn. We like that we don't have to use any herbicides or chemicals to keep weeds away. And its a lot less work than pulling weeds!! This isn't affiliate marketing or a paid spot - we bought the stuff ourselves and just really like how its worked out for us. Here is the torch from Harbor Freight that we use - www.harborfr...
Can I Compost Citrus - Oranges, Lemons, Limes and Grapefruit??
มุมมอง 3983 หลายเดือนก่อน
Like a lemon to a lime, a lime to a lemon - Can you compost them?? There are concerns on some "Don't Compost This!!!!" lists on the internet about citrus. Seems like most of the concerns are about how citrus is acidic or issues with their peels. Unless this is the majority of what's going in your compost pile - then you are going to be fine!! You can learn more about our compost operation and p...
Can I Compost It? Pumpkins
มุมมอง 1589 หลายเดือนก่อน
Can you compost pumpkins? They aren't recyclable, so is composting an option? Check out our answer for backyard composting and commercial composting. You can learn more about our compost operation and products at www.veterancompost.com Got questions or suggestions? Leave a comment or shoot us a message. Happy Composting! FOLLOW US HERE: Instagram - @veteran_compost Facebook - veter...
Can I Compost It? Napkins
มุมมอง 2109 หลายเดือนก่อน
Can you compost napkins? They aren't recyclable, so is composting an option - check out our answer for backyard composting and commercial composting. You can learn more about our compost operation and products at www.veterancompost.com Got questions or suggestions? Leave a comment or shoot us a message. Happy Composting! FOLLOW US HERE: Instagram - @veteran_compost Facebook - veter...
What is Vermiculite? How can you use it in your garden?
มุมมอง 33011 หลายเดือนก่อน
Ever heard of Vermiculite? It's a popular lightweight soil aggregate that works great in container and raised bed mixes. One thing we forgot to mention in the video - there are sometimes concerns about asbestos being mixed in with vermiculite. Vermiculite is tested to make sure there is no asbestos (The mine with this issue was supposedly closed back in 1990). So, this isn't a concern among cur...
Can I Compost Wax Paper? aka Is Wax Paper Compostable?
มุมมอง 276ปีที่แล้ว
Is wax paper compostable? It depends. It's the most common answer when it comes to compost topics, but listen along and we'll quickly explain why. And as always, if you have more questions - just let us know. Here is a link to the BPI product list (its a great resource for checking products or finding certified compostable ones). bpiworld.org/find-certified-products You can learn more about our...
Can you guess which compost is organic? And why one isn't organic?
มุมมอง 133ปีที่แล้ว
We make OMRI certified compost and all-natural compost, can you guess which is which? And why one of them isn't allowed to be certified organic? You can learn more about our compost operation and products at www.veterancompost.com Got questions or suggestions? Leave a comment or shoot us a message. Happy Composting! FOLLOW US HERE: Instagram - veteran_com... OR @veteran_compost Fa...
Is My Compost Ok?! Using a Solvita Test Kit to Check Compost Maturity
มุมมอง 210ปีที่แล้ว
Solvita Test Kits help to measure compost maturity aka how finished a compost is. It does this by using two probes that measure CO2 and ammonia. Usually these kits are out of our price range (we opt for seed germination tests which only cost 5-10 cents). But, they have been interesting to try out as part of a project we're working on. You can find out more about the test kits on their website -...
Check out this Oxygen Probe! We were gifted an expensive (and Fun) tool to use for composting
มุมมอง 323ปีที่แล้ว
We were recently given an oxygen probe as part of some testing that we are doing for an outside organization. It's pretty cool! Not something we would have bought on our own (Looks like the one we got is $1,600 ?!?!!). But, it's led to a lot of probing of piles around the site to see if our assumptions are backed up by the probe You can learn more about our compost operation and products at www...
What words and symbols should you look for when you want to know if something is compostable??
มุมมอง 179ปีที่แล้ว
What words and symbols should you look for when you want to know if something is compostable??
Can I Compost - Potted Plants, Old Potting Mix & Spent Soil
มุมมอง 285ปีที่แล้ว
Can I Compost - Potted Plants, Old Potting Mix & Spent Soil
How do you test if something really is compostable??
มุมมอง 308ปีที่แล้ว
How do you test if something really is compostable??
Chicken Coop Setup At Our Compost Site in Aberdeen Maryland
มุมมอง 200ปีที่แล้ว
Chicken Coop Setup At Our Compost Site in Aberdeen Maryland
Why We Have Chickens At Our Compost Facility - It’s Not Why You Think We Do….
มุมมอง 398ปีที่แล้ว
Why We Have Chickens At Our Compost Facility - It’s Not Why You Think We Do….
Screening Compost In The Rain - Wildcat 510 Trommel Screen
มุมมอง 1.1Kปีที่แล้ว
Screening Compost In The Rain - Wildcat 510 Trommel Screen
How We Screen Worm Castings and Harvest Red Wigglers 🪱
มุมมอง 17K2 ปีที่แล้ว
How We Screen Worm Castings and Harvest Red Wigglers 🪱
Thanks for the breakdown. Cheers to our Veterans!!!%
I need help!!! I have reason to believe the sellers of the home we just got was using cat poop and litter for compost! The fruits and vegetables we were told were good never grew back in our yard. As a matter of fact, everything is dying. Including the Palm Tree in my front yard!! Please help!!!! I hope she didn’t kill her husband feeding him that stuff. He was a good man. We’ve only been here a few weeks. There is redness inside everything I cut down!! What is this??
I didnt have any woid ash so burnt some brown paper that came with something i ordered do you think thats a good idea?
Above 131 degrees celcius is way hotter than compost.. im sure you meant Fahrenheit, great video though 👍
I second that eggshells take a long time to break down! As do avocado peels and pits! I now don't put any of those in my compost! Also, chicken manure -- best thing in the world to speed up the breakdown of your compost. Guess you can tell I'm not worried about salmonella! :)
I have 2 donkeys on a mini-farm. The longest I can "compost" their manure is about 3 months, before I have to spread it in the pasture or use it on something. I add some waste hay, some lime, and turn it some but not terribly effectively. It never heats up! Today I spread some that was 3 months old and had melted down to about 1/4 its original bulk, on some shrubs, sunflowers, and perennials. It was the consistency of dense black mud (and FULL of tiny red wigglers!) Now I'm worrying about burning my plants. My hay is pesticide free. My local ag office hasn't been terribly helpful. Any suggestions? And should I scrape this stuff off my flame azaleas??
Is there a problem with the bleach used to make it white? thanks
Thank you for sharing this… great education for those who do well dabbling but want to maybe grow it a bit.
What about brands like if you care unbleached parchment? I looked up other websites that says it’s ok for that brand to compost
Whaaat? Problem?? Since i was a child: just put a stone on the hole. Simply
Like how he's worried about soil falling out, but he dumps all the soil on the floor
Oh look! A fix for a problem no one has ever had! Sweeeeeet.
How dry and dusty is your soil if it just drops out a 1" hole?
Love seeing another vet out there on the same mission! We're doing the same in rural Oregon, using it to support our veterans programs. We've been building up as we go and just got into more equipment. Your advice is appreciated and valuable.
That's awesome to hear! We're all about bootstrapping to the top of the compost world!
My grandmother just used to put broken pieces of other pots in the bottom to keep the soil in.
Also same here
dang that’s legit a good idea
Wow! A genius. 😂
i did this for 5 years, went out in my boots in the pouring rain and marched and stomped all over that dirt! I loved working in my compost while I was singing and feeling the stress drop!❤
Place looks great. We need more of these in this country but I gotta ask, the walking backwards, is he trollin?
Thank you!
Great video, Justin! - Cory from Greener Bay Compost
Hey, thanks!
Cory from Greener Bay Compost here. The paraffin wax that coats most wax paper is made from petroleum-based. Even if the paper is coated with wax made from soy and, say, BPI-certified as compostable, the problem for composters like us is that the paper tends not to be clearly and individually labeled/watermarked as such, which means that we can't possibly know whether it is truly safe for composting or not when/if we receive it from someone. For this reason, Greener Bay Compost does not accept any wax, baking, or parchment papers. The material itself simply isn't valuable enough for us to deal with the headache of it potentially contaminating our finished products. Check with your compost service in your area before giving them any coated papers like this. They'll likely tell you they don't want them. It is best to toss them in the trash. 🚮
The biggest issue is to watch out for is grazon. It will ruin your garden for @ least one season. It happened to me 5 years ago.
Grazon is a tough one, that stinks! The top of the label says "Hay from grass treated with GrazonNext HL within the preceding 18 months can only be used on the farm or ranch where the product is applied unless allowed by supplemental labeling" but some farmers go ahead and sell their hay at auction or on Facebook Marketplace, etc to unsuspecting buyers. So, we try to source manure from farms where they grow their own hay and know 100% that no persistent herbicides were used.
@@veterancompost You did a great job of fully covering the topic. I warned a friend 3x about the compost he was making for his garden, but the info just didn't sink in. His garden is going to suck next season. He uses hay for his chickens. I know the fields where he gets his hay. The field is perfect, no weeds. You know it was sprayed just by looking @ the field.
Can someone explain the “carbon stealing nutrients from my soil” statement? I was always taught the larger the carbon pool the better plants can fight off pests, pathogens, and stress. Would love to learn more about this.
Large amounts of carbon, such as uncomposted wood chips, in compost will require nitrogen from the soil you add it to to break down, and the microbes will take the nitrogen from the soil to do this, which will make it unavailable for your plants. This is why much compost is screened to a smaller size before use, so big chunks of unprocessed/unbroken-down wood aren't in it. Really woody compost is fine as a topdressing/mulch, but not as a garden bed filler/soil blend.
I use it n the compost pile and also in a bucket of water to make a liquid fertilizer.
You make manure tea? How do you use it after you make it? Like a soil drench or something else?
We do spoiled hay, shavings, and tree/garden waste (through a chipper), and minimal kitchen scraps with our horse manure. Consistent turning 2-3x per week and I can get temps upwards of 150 with no weeds…. I can make a lumpy; well composted product in about 45-90 days depending on rain.
Thats great! We've been conditioned as consumers to want super finely screened material because that's what the national brands sell. But, lumpy compost is awesome. The larger particle size will help create tilth in soils.
Thank you Justin
Never had a problem with horse manure, seems like a scare campaign to buy commercial compost.
Glad it worked out for you! Wasn't trying to scare anyone into buying other compost - just want to make sure folks know some of the issues. When things go right with horse manure composting - it does make some good stuff.
Thank you for your video from Australia.
Good to know!! I pulverize my egg shells and feed them to my worm farms!🪱🪱🪱
Oh cool! Good way to add nutrients to your castings!
Great info!!🪱🪱🪱
Never had pigweed in my garden until I used composted horse manure. It also screwed my garden because of Herbicide sprayed on the hay. Had to deep turn all the beds. NO HORSE MANURE ever again. Even in the quote Big Box stores compost. Not worth it.
That's terrible! The downside to horse manure compost is that when it goes bad - it can go really bad. I hope the garden recovered! We haven't handled it in our compost piles for about 10 years but are looking to get back into handling it. However, we would ensure weed seed destruction and only recommend the finished compost be used for turfgrass where potential herbicide risk wouldn't be a problem.
@@veterancompost Yeah it recovered after rolling the ground over deep. By the way I'm on the Eastern Shore, do you bring anything this way? My garden just keeps getting bigger LOL
@@8ema533 We cover parts of the Eastern Shore for delivery, or we can recommend some folks who cover areas we don't. Shoot us an email or message via our website. Glad the garden recovered!
Pigweed is a type of amaranth that is edible and commonly harvested intentionally in many areas as food. My household eats it. You should, too. Many "weeds" are edible and highly nutritious! Other examples of such plants: Common plantain, lamb's quarters/goosefoot, purslane, curly dock, wood sorrel, blue violets, dandelions, and lady's thumb.
@@TheCoryGroshek Sorry man, I 'm not a yard grazer. Hope you don't have dogs
I haven't run any windrows with manure yet but I'd like to try it out as an experiment. Right now we're focused on food waste and that seems to be the "low hanging fruit" for now.
We have only composted manure in ASP systems, but have had really good results in the past. We haven't handled it for the last 10 years due to the herbicide risk - but we might open a site to handle horse manure and food waste in the future. The mixture of food waste and horse manure/bedding does make some great compost when done well
Threw a dead groundhog in a large compost pile and kept it hot & aerated…. Was GONE in just weeks, hair, bone, and all
Mortality Composting (ie. composting dead animals) is an awesome way to handle animals lost on farms, roadkill, etc. In the past, folks had paid to send these mortalities to rendering companies (very expensive) or buried them in the ground (potentially bad for water quality) but those options aren't as effective as composting
How big a of space would I need to start my own business?
If you look up "community composter" on the internet - you can find lots of stories of folks who started a compost business out of their garage or backyard. With a simple aerated box system like the Microbin from O2 Compost, you could handle a good amount of material quietly in a small space like a backyard.
Thank you for informative channel, Sir. I am trying to do something like this in another part of the world, and your channel is very informative. I have a question, don't you crush the input waste material before sending it to the piling and curing area?
There are some operations that use rotary mixers (like you would use for cattle feed) to blend and crush their initial mix. However, we see this as just another cost and another machine to have to repair. So, we just ensure that our loader operators get a good mix when then are doing the initial mixing of feedstocks
@@veterancompost I see. Thank you for the information.
Dangit, i've been throwing those things out for years. Cheers for clearing this up. You're the most commonsense voice I've seen on composting, so if you say a thing's okay, I'm gonna be chill about it.
Glad we could help. Our motto is "Compost Happens". So, there is plenty of math and science behind feedstock blending (Cornell University has great calculators on their website) but we try not sweat it unless we are dealing with a tough feedstock. At the end of the day - as long as you add things in moderation and have enough carbon and good moisture content - you're going to end up with great compost!
Damn, that is a good idea I would never have thought of.
I think we got the idea from a TH-cam video we saw, so we can’t take too much credit 🤣
So glad you put this out there!! Lots of great points! Citrus does just fine in worm bins as well, just like life, everything in moderation...to include moderation!!🪱🪱🪱
Good Call - Moderation is a good theme in composting!
What do you do with the larger screened out pieces after you remove the worms?
Since we feed our worms prescreened material, what usually is left as "overs" (aka the portion of material that didn't pass through the screen) is clumps of material that didn't break apart as they went down the screener drum. So, we simply place that material back in our worm bin with the worms and give them a good soak. Then we add the first layer of "Worm Food" and start all over again. Usually those clumps will break apart over time and hopefully screen out next time. If we see any odd pieces of woody material in the "overs" we will pick those out since the worms won't be able to break those down. But, by pre-screening what goes in as worm food, that helps us avoid too much of that happening.
Thanks for the reply! What are your thoughts on collecting it and selling it as “vermimulch” … or perhaps it would take too long to collect a large enough quantity before losing freshness?
@@bryang.thomas3630 There would be a market for that. Most mulch is full of artificial dyes - so an all-natural product with microbial life like you are suggesting would have buyers. You would just have to figure out the price point that is viable.....
Succinct and makes sense. Shame most people don't get understand the dangers of the wrong bacteria and toxo. Looking to get into composting one day but was curious about this bit. You made it click fast.
Thank you
You're welcome! Happy Composting!
Government over regulation is a scourge on the people the people need to stop voting for
To your point about commercial businesses that adopt your service based on principle but really look at your service as another expense is a great point.....it all boils down to money.....on the other hand the challenge is the opportunity and while i dont have the full answer, i have a glimpse of a vision that is mostly a pipe dream, but the point is we as a society have to complete the circuit.what i mean is our food supply and food growing system is all wrong. We need to move away from big factory farms that dump chemical fertilzers to grow food and move back to using a system that relies on the food scraps going back to the farmers to feed the soil or the livestock that the resterraunt needs to feed its customers. Right now the food is flown in & trucked in from far away, the chef isnt required to send it back because the farmer doesnt operate that way. In our closed loop the chef supplies the farmer with the fertilizer, instead of a big chemical company. The chef literally has no incentive to send his scrap to you in order to make the fertilizer aka compost that the farmer need to raise the produce. If it is possible to create local food supplies that operate in a cyclical way and cut the reliance on sysco and northern haserot, farmers would raise the meat , fruit, and veggies locally, sell to the local restaurant or market to feed the local population, and those people would send their waste to you, and you compost the waste to send back to the farmers as "fertilizer" to replace the nutrients in the soil that grew the food the first time..... To put a fine point on it, the use of chemical fertilizer brought in fromoutside the local ecosystem is the outlier that is disrupting our loop from re connecting itself
Do you guys do anything to get rid of microplastics that screening doesn't get rid of
The material we get is 99% free of non-compostable items - but we are always working to make it better so that our compost is even better. The challenge with accepting outside material is that once it's on our site - it's now ours to deal with (the compostables and the non-compostables hidden in there) Micro Plastics are terrible, and getting plastic out of our inbound material is our top priority this year. We are attacking plastics in a couple of ways: 1. Reaching out every month to the Top 2 customers who are putting non-compostable material in their collection bins. Offering more signage and training to help reduce contamination at the source 2. Litter pickup each day - each employee who works on-site spends 15 minutes each day patrolling for any litter or plastic around the site 3. Building a platform on our "overs" conveyor where and employee can stand an pick out any trash, rocks, etc that they see on the screener belt. We are also working on building a new site where we will only handle pre-consumer material for turning into OMRI listed compost. That way we have the cleanest possible inbound material to make the cleanest possible outbound material.
Thank you very straight forward to follow for a novice gardener like me..👍
Happy Growing!!
why recycle anything that can be used as free compost to grow plants at your house, even just tossing it in a pit/trench to use for planting in a year instead of buying unnecessary compost or soil nutrients
Thank you so much for the information here. We are thinking about starting a composting operation on some land my family owns in East Texas not too far from some major cities and have been trying to work on the economic model for it. This video along with others definitely helps me make sure I take things into consideration that I hadn't before. One question I have is whether or not you have looked at composting via Johnson-Su bioreactors. They seem to be a mostly "build and forget" type of model which would have a lot lower production costs for high quality compost.
Those reactors are pretty cool and look to make some great compost. If your goal is to make small-batch compost, they would work well for that. But, for scaling up production or processing larger amounts of production (tons per day) - Aerated Static Pile or Windrow composting are probably more cost-effective.
So what were the results??
Overall, things broke down very well. We can't speak to specifics as part of the conditions of the testing agreement - but you can read the full report here www.closedlooppartners.com/does-compostable-packaging-actually-break-down-composting-consortium-reveals-groundbreaking-findings-from-largest-field-test-in-north-america/#:~:text=Composting%20Consortium%20Reveals%20Groundbreaking%20Findings%20from%20Largest%20Field%20Test%20in%20North%20America,-By%20Composting%20Consortium&text=Data%20in%20new%20report%20reveals,that%20meet%20reasonable%20operating%20parameters.
Rip teabags before putting them in food caddy/ compost bags. People are not going to empty teabags when putting them in the above.