Oklahoma State University
IN-24: Innovation A

OSU Grounds & Landscape staff gather landscape waste (dead tree or branch removal, grass clippings, annuals, shrubs, dead leaves and shred the material for mixing with stall cleanings from the OSU Rodeo Grounds. Processed cow manure from the OSU Dairy Barn is also added. Temperature is measured regularly to ensure pathogens and weed seed are killed (goal for static pile is an average of 131-170 degrees F for at least 3 consecutive days). The mixture receives rainwater and is turned with front-end loader.

Several bays are used to have various stages of the process, which ensures finished compost on a regular basis. It takes about 1 year until the compost can be used as soil amendment. In 2017, about 81 tons of organic material was diverted from the landfill and composted into a valuable soil amendment, that no longer needs to be purchased.

This innovation is extraordinary in that all landscape waste, instead of being transported many miles to the landfill, is being transported less than one mile, on average, to the campus landscape compost facility. Rather than bring soil amendment onto the campus from far distances and deal with plastic packaging, staff now create all the soil amendment needed to maintain the 700+ landscaped grounds of campus. This "closed-loop" system is somewhat common on a backyard scale, but uncommon for a community of nearly 30K, which is our Stillwater campus.

While the Landscape Compost Program began as a pilot program in 2011, and has been ongoing since then, the program is now totally closed-loop: we are collecting the organic material, composting it, and using it on our landscape as soil amendment. No outside vendor is assisting us in this process. Furthermore, there are no commercial-scale composting facilities within 100 miles of the OSU Stillwater campus.

John Lee & Steve Dobbs, OSU Grounds & Landscape