Agresource, Inc

Agresource, Inc. is a Massachusetts corporation, doing business in New England and the Northeast since 1984. We provide services to municipal, industrial, and commercial clients by applying environmentally sound, beneficial utilization-strategies, using appropriate technologies. Agresource staff has expertise in the areas of composting, compost utilization and marketing, land application, and energy recovery (e.g., anaerobic digestion).

The traditional services of the company have been focused on the development of environmentally sound and sustainable programs for organic residuals. Composting and land application of biosolids, leaf and yard waste, and other source-separated organics have been primary areas of activity. However, the company’s recent focus has been directed toward diversion of selected residuals toward uses whereby energy recovery is also possible. In excess of 40,000 tons of food processing residuals annually are beneficially utilized in programs managed by Agresource.

In 1991, EPA Region I awarded Agresource with the Beneficial Sewage Sludge Award in Recognition of Outstanding Operation of a Sludge Management Project for providing for the beneficial use of sludge while protecting the environmental quality and public health. Staff members actively participate in both national and regional professional organizations, deliver technical presentations at conferences and serve on advisory panels.

Agresource provides product marketing services and distributes in excess of 100,000 cubic yards per year of compost, mulch, and compost-amended manufactured soil in the Northeast. Marketing activities are centered in New England and the Northeast, where Agresource provides promotional services to more than 12 compost facilities.

Agresource provides compost screening services to municipal and private clients for processing leaf and yard waste. Agresource staff and equipment are also utilized to blend and screen specialized soil mixes used in construction of sports fields, wetland remediation, storm water treatment, and other highly specialized projects.

Agresource works with an extensive list of Farm Cooperators in New England to land-apply and to compost both solid and liquid organic wastes. Materials handled in the farm program include a variety of industrial residues classified by the Department of Environmental Protection as suitable for beneficial use.

Ipswich Compost Facility Operations

IpswichSince 1989, Agresource has worked with the town of Ipswich on the construction and operation of an integrated composting facility located on town land. This facility was developed to compost biosolids generated by the town wastewater treatment plant. The biosolids are co-composted with leaves and yard wastes.

Over the past ten years, the facility has been expanded to serve regional needs. Biosolids from Newburyport, Amesbury, Rockport, and Merrimac are received at the facility and composted along with the Town wastes. The Town of Ipswich shares in revenues collected from the receipt of outside materials and from the sale of compost.

The composing facility utilizes a decommissioned Nike missile-tracking site, and consists of an enclosed mixing building and aerated compost trenches. A hard pad, receiving building, aerated windrow area, and leachate collection system were designed and constructed at this municipally owned site. In 1997 a covered composting module was added to increase the facility capacity for biosolids. Curing and compost storage areas are also provided on site.

The facility uses the aerated static pile composting method. Air is forced through the piles from aeration trenches in the compost pad. The aeration trenches also serve as under drains to collect any compost leachate for treatment.

Compost generated from this facility, which meets Mass DEP Type I and US EPA Class A standards, is screened and marketed by Agresource to a variety of end-users in the contracting, landscape, and turf industries. A portion of the product is also made available free of charge to Town residents through the department of public works.

In addition to the biosolids compost, compost is made on site using other organic residuals (e.g., sources-separated food and food-processing residuals with leaves and yard wastes) to make an alternative high-quality product. This product is distributed to customers seeking material that does not include biosolids.