Modeling the Design of Windrow Composting Operations to Maximize the Bottom Line

Waste management planners and engineers are sometimes faced with questions of how much land, equipment, labor, and investment is required for a proposed composting operation. The numerous factors that impact process design and costs such as type of materials composted, location of facility, cost of labor, etc. make it tedious to make these assessments quickly. To address this situation, a user-friendly computer program was developed which can be used to design a composting operation based on current scientific and regulatory recommendations. The program uses critical user-inputs such as types of feedstocks, types of equipment, number of workers and location of the facility, to develop a preliminary design of the composting process and facility, and an estimate of capital and operating costs. The user can quickly generate many different design scenarios that can be used to estimate the feasibility of composting as a waste management option.