kompogas SLO
Community Open House
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Event Update
Compost pick-up is available for our Sept. 26 community event. Sign up with the buttons on this page. Due to COVID restrictions, the Open House tours are cancelled for our fall event. Thank you for your support of keeping our community clean and green.
Your Green Bin =
a
GREENER
San Luis Obispo
At our Community Open House, come see how YOU are a vital part of the solution in keeping our community clean and green.
Free All-Natural Compost
When you fill your green bin, you help keep our community clean and green.
We want to thank you by giving you a free ½ yard of our nutrient-rich compost that results from processing your green bin materials.
Here is how:
- Select your pick-up time (at 10-minute intervals)
- Come with a pick-up truck or small trailer
- Bring a broom, tarp, and tie-downs
- Drive in at your designated time (pick your appointment time in the calendar to the right)
- Our team will load your compost
- Go to the tarping area to cover your load and clean off loose material
- Enjoy the benefits of your nutrient-rich compost in garden & lawn projects
- Use the compost as top dressing and blend into your soil (for more details, see the information sheet you'll receive when you pick up your compost, or click the blue button below)
- Sign up HERE for your 10-minute compost loading slot (pick your time and enter your email address)
Kompogas SLO Plant Tour
Curious about what happens after your organic waste is delivered to our new and state-of-the-art facility?
Find out by signing up for a free plant tour.
Here is how:
- Choose your tour time (every 30 minutes from 10:00 to 2:00)
- Residents age 15 years old and over welcome
- Some stair-climbing and walking is required
- Wear closed-toe shoes (required for the tour)
- Put on our safety equipment (you'll look fabulous)
- Sign up HERE for your facility tour slot (pick your time and enter your email address)
Event Update
Due to COVID restrictions, the Open House tours are cancelled for our fall event. Thank you for your support of keeping our community clean and green.
Compost pick-up is available for our Sept. 26 community event. Sign up with the buttons on this page.
What the Experts Say
"The plant will process the organic solid waste at a thermophilic temperature of 131°F (55°C). The higher processing temperature ensures that spores, bacteria, and harmful seeds are eliminated, completely sanitizing the organic matter during processing. Equally important, the higher temperature permits the carbon-neutral biogas potential to be fully exploited."
How We Create Good Things from Green Waste
When you collect your kitchen scraps, food waste, lawn trimmings and other green waste and put them in your green bin, it comes to our state-of-the-art renewable energy and recycling facility.
In 30 days, your organic waste is converted into all-natural compost and liquid soil amendment, used by local farmers and wineries to grow healthy crops. The recycling process also creates carbon-negative biogas that is turned into renewable electricity.
It all adds up to a clean, sustainable way to turn waste into valuable materials, reduce our carbon footprint, and divert waste from landfills.
In addition, it helps achieve the 75 Percent Initiative launched by California in 2011, which sets out the state’s declared goal of achieving a 75% reduction in total waste by 2020.
How Can You Help?
Here are some easy tips to know what goes in your green bin.
Did you know you can put all sorts of food waste into your green bin? Leaves, grass clippings, produce trimmings… and SO much more.
And even better and easier for you — just put your organic waste directly into your green bin. No compostable baggies needed.
- Our digester loves to eat:
- Kitchen scraps from vegetables
- Kitchen scraps from meats
- Dairy and egg waste (including shells)
- Coffee grounds and tea leaves
- Meat (including bones)
- Fish and shellfish (including bones)
- Fat
- Lawn clippings
- Leaves
- Brush and vines (maximum 3 feet long and 6 inches diameter)
- Our digester can't eat:
- Plastic bags (even the compostable ones)
- Lumber and wood scraps
- Cans and glass
- Diapers
- Pet and animal waste
- Rocks and dirt
- Tree stumps
- Nursery pots
When you feed your organic waste to our digester, we all benefit.
If organic waste is disposed of in landfills, it can create methane gas, which is a greenhouse gas that is 25 times worse than CO2 and significantly contributes towards global warming.
When organic waste goes to our recycling facility instead, we all help by:
- reducing the carbon footprint of our community
- diverting organic waste from landfills
- creating enough energy to power 600 homes for a year
Watch Your Local Kompogas SLO Facility Construction
Waste Facts
Organic waste accounts for more than a third of California’s waste stream. Now, thanks to the partnership and actions of key participants, the San Luis Obispo County Organics Recycling System is now operating in a sustainable way at the Kompogas SLO Recycling Center.
Benefits of Kompogas SLO Organic Waste Recycling System
- Local organic waste is recycled locally, not going to the landfill, and is extending the life of area landfills
- System contributes to California’s reduction in greenhouse gas emissions
- The Dry Anaerobic Digestion plant generates renewable electricity
- The Dry Anaerobic Digestion plant produces compost and liquid soil amendments for growers
- Production of the renewable fuel biogas and compost as a byproduct will further enable the ecologically sustainable and profitable recycling of organic waste as a resource
- System contributes to California’s goal of 75 percent reduction of organics from landfill by 2025
- System contributes to SLO IWMA Regional Strategy to Meet California Solid Waste Diversion Mandates
With $4 million awarded and administered by CalRecycle, The Kompogas SLO Facility is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide program that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment — particularly in disadvantaged communities. The California Energy Commission has provided an additional $4 million for development under the Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) Program.
About
Kompogas SLO
In November 2018, our state-of-the-art, high heat, dry anaerobic digestion facility started converting organic waste into carbon-neutral biogas and high-grade natural compost.
Zurich-based Hitachi Zosen Inova (HZI) designed, financed, built, owns and operates the plant. HZI is a global leader in energy and material from waste solutions.
