MAUI EKO COMPOST
Spinning straw into gold for the good of the planet
Nestled at the end of a gravel road that snakes across the Central Maui Landfill off Pulehu Road amid towering mounds of compost in varying stages of curation, a modest trailer bears the sign Maui EKO Compost Office.
Inside, Plant Manager Rubens Fonseca advises a local rancher on the safest, most effective fly traps to combat an onslaught of pests plaguing his animals.
“Farmers, they struggle, we need to give them all the help they can get,” he says after clicking off his phone.
MEC, Fonseca explains, routinely donates compost to small farms, helping them contribute to locally grown, sustainable agriculture on Maui.
And when it comes to sustainability, it all starts with the word “compost,” Fonseca suggests, especially during this time of climate change and discussions about carbon sequestration.
“Composting is a very important activity, not only because of the increase in landscaping and green waste, but also in growing more trees,” he says, “which is the best defense we have against global warming.”
Fonseca points to a laminated piece of paper clipped to the wall that reads: “Compost is not a fertilizer. It is a useful soil conditioner that improves texture, air circulation and drainage. Compost can moderate soil temperature, enhance nutrients and water holding capacity, decrease erosion, inhibit weed growth and suppress some plant pathogens.”
“This is the best definition of compost,” he says. “This is what it’s all about.”
Compost, Fonseca continues, is the cheapest organic diversion process available with a minimum of structures needed except perhaps a small warehouse for supplies and machinery repairs and administration.
And the payoff for farmers, landscapers, property owners, golf course groundskeepers, nurseries (the list goes on) and the environment is priceless.
“You’re creating a rich soil amendment with compost,” he says. “I don’t think there are very many professional landscapers on Maui that don’t use us — especially with our volcanic soil, you need organic matter to reintroduce into the soil. And that’s what we offer.”
For almost 25 years, MEC has been providing customers with an extensive selection of gardening materials including EKO Premium Compost, EKO Lawn Topdressing, topsoil and compost blends, mulch and woodchips, as well as custom blends.
“We just had a guy who wanted a blend for growing coconuts,” Fonseca recalls. “He wanted a blend of rock dust, horse manure, specific soil — all of which he supplied — and with some of our product.”
With a dedicated concrete bay on-site for blending, EKO can blend up to approximately 15 to 20 arms, or individual materials, at its facility.
Other popular blends are with sand, which Fonseca says golf courses use for their divot mixes because it helps expediate growth, and soil compost blends with added cinder for areas such as Maui Lani built on sandy soil.
Commercial nurseries often request proprietary blends in which they provide their ideal formulation, which MEC blends and then delivers to the end users.
MEC’s business model allows residents to dispose of their green waste for free by charging commercial enterprises, such as large landscaping companies, for each drop-off.
“Basically, the residential service is subsidized by the commercial,” Fonseca continues.
Breaking the entire process down into its simplest form, Fonseca explains that there are three products, or feed stocks, that MEC processes into its rich compost products: Sewage sludge, green waste and FOG, or fats, oils and grease collected from restaurants, grease-traps, cess pools and similar places then delivered to MEC in vacuum trucks.
Maui County brings sludge loads from the three watertreatment plants on island which goes into the sludge bay and is blended with the mulch that’s created from grinding green waste that residents and commercial enterprises bring in.
“Everything starts with grinding the green waste,” Fonseca says. “That’s our carbon source to bulk up the sludge, or human manure, which is very rich in nitrogen and other soil nutrients.”
After the sludge and green waste are combined, the mixture heats up over the next couple of days from chemical activity as the bacteria breaks down.
MEC employs an aerated static pile composting method.
“There are approximately four phases: blending the incoming material or pre-mix, then we move that material to aerated static piles with fans to draw air through,” Fonseca outlines. “Once we place those piles, we leave them alone for about three months until they
reach the appropriate temperature.”
Once the piles are cured, they are screened through two large screening units to extract larger pieces of material, or the “overs,” which are then returned to the mulch to go through the entire process again from the beginning.
“Nothing gets out of here other than the finished product,” Fonseca stresses. “Even the water that leeches down from the aerated static piles is collected in septic tanks and pumped back into the sludge bay.”
The entire process to create quality compost from start to finish is at least six months, Fonseca explains, which explains the thrust of mounds in subtle hues of brown and black that rise up throughout the grounds, each identified with a number.
To ensure the best quality and highest safety measures of its products, MEC logs each batch, or pile, daily. Samples of every batch are sent to Food Quality Lab in Honolulu where it’s tested for heavy metals and fecal coliforms — a monitored pathogen.
Once MEC receives the results from each batch, it sends the temperature logs and the results for each batch to the Hawaii Department of Health’s wastewater division, which reviews the information and provides documentation of safety and quality suitable for retail sale.
Fonseca opens a file drawer thick with folders.
“Here are all the lab results and letters of approval from the Department of Health for each batch,” he explains. “Without
those, we can’t move the product.”
MEC’s products are regulated not only by DOH locally, but EPA at the federal level.
“Besides these tests, we do one more: Seal of Test Assurance. That’s required by the U.S. Composting Council, a national effort to standardize compost throughout the country with about 300 members,” Fonseca explains. “It’s one step in creating a safer and better product, which is identified by the Seal of Test Assurance on each bag.”
In addition to providing nutrient-rich compost, MEC provides an every larger community service — diverting green waste from landfills, which are not appropriate, environmentally viable solutions of green-waste disposal.
“Any organic matter, including green waste and sludge, into the landfill will generate more methane,” Fonseca advises. “And methane is the
worst gas for the atmosphere.”
Fonseca says he would like to see the county implement green waste pick-up service throughout.
“If the county could offer that to all residents, that would be great,” he suggests.
Residents who put green waste into their trash can may be unknowingly contributing to climate change as green waste is not separated from trash once it’s picked up by collecting trucks.
“It’s better to dispose of your green waste in an unused section of your property than put it into your trash can,” he says. “Let it compost naturally.”
But the best case scenario for homeowners and the planet in general is to utilize the expertise offered by MEC.
“We provide a good service for the community, I think,” Fonseca concludes. “Very few people have the need anymore to throw their green waste into gulches or, worse, into their trash cans with their rubbish.”