Series: Master Composter Course
Runtime: ~5:46 (final caption ends at 00:05:46,400)
Featuring: Sarah Janson, Kyle Richardson, and Brandon Acuff, Len Foote Hike Inn
Format: On-site video tour, three speakers, no Q&A segment
Credit: No Georgia pesticide applicator CEU categories apply to this video
What This Video Covers
A working example of a closed food-waste loop at a remote facility. In under six minutes, three Hike Inn staff show all three of the property’s composting systems, the harvest method for the worm bins, the gardens where the finished product goes, and the guest-facing program that keeps the input volume low enough for the systems to keep up.
The video works as a case study for course participants who have learned the mechanics of vermicomposting and want to see a system that has been running since 1999.
Summary
Three Len Foote Hike Inn staff members walk through the composting systems that handle the property’s food waste and human waste. Sarah Janson starts with the origin. The Hike Inn was built and opened around Halloween of 1998 around an idea of eco-friendly building and sustainability, and the people brought in at the opening were chosen for their sustainability work. Composting was in the plan from the jump. The property now runs three systems: two for food and one for human waste.
The composting toilets run on airflow and bacteria. Janson notes the breeze a guest feels sitting down, then gives the number that justifies it. The toilets save the Inn more than 200,000 gallons of water a year, and what breaks down in them gets used as normal compost.
Kyle Richardson takes the camera into the worm room, where two bins hold about 10,000 red wiggler worms. Every couple of days staff carry down a bucket of eggshells, apple cores, and produce, mix in shredded office paper, dig a trench, and feed the worms. The worms leave castings that go out to the native plant gardens for nutrients. Richardson also shows the harvest method: stop feeding the bin for a week, let the worms migrate to one side, dig up the other side, spread the material on a tarp, separate out what has not finished breaking down, and let it dry. Dairy and proteins are where the worms stop. Those go to the Earth Cube with the coffee grounds and the rest of the food waste.
Brandon Acuff picks up at the end of the line, in the native Georgia plant beds where the finished compost goes. He explains how guests get pulled into it. After dinner service, staff look at the plate scraps and post a smiley face or a frowny face on the dining hall chalkboard, and the result gets discussed on the tour and posted again after breakfast.
Janson closes with the arc: one small worm bin started by a naturalist in 1999 with five pounds of worms, now two bins and an Earth Cube. Her advice to anyone thinking about starting is that every bin is individual, the system stays a work in progress, and the thing to avoid is giving up immediately.
Chapter Index
| Time | Chapter |
|---|---|
| 0:00 | Built for Sustainability: The Hike Inn Since 1998 |
| 0:23 | Three Composting Systems on One Property |
| 0:41 | Composting Toilets: 200,000 Gallons Saved a Year |
| 1:07 | The Worm Bins: Five Pounds of Worms in 1999 |
| 1:59 | Inside the Worm Room: 10,000 Red Wigglers |
| 2:39 | Harvesting Castings and Migrating the Worms |
| 3:27 | Reaching 100%, and the Native Plant Gardens |
| 4:15 | The Clean Plate Chalkboard |
| 4:55 | What the System Has Meant, and Advice for Starting One |
Questions and Answers
Q: How many composting systems does the Hike Inn run, and what does each one handle?
A: Three. Two handle food waste: the worm bins and an Earth Cube. The third is the composting toilet system, which handles human waste. Sarah Janson says composting was part of the plan from the time the Inn opened around Halloween of 1998.
Q: How much water do the composting toilets save?
A: Over 200,000 gallons a year. They run on airflow and bacteria, which is why a guest feels a breeze sitting down. What breaks down in them gets used as normal compost.
Q: When did the worm bins start, and how?
A: In 1999, close after the Inn opened. One of the naturalists started it with five pounds of worms, and Janson says that bin is still going to this day.
Q: What goes into the worm bins?
A: Eggshells, apple cores, and produce left over from the kitchen, mixed with paper from the office that staff shred. Kyle Richardson says they come down with a bucket every couple of days depending on how full it is, dig a trench in the bin, and feed the worms there.
Q: What will the worms not take?
A: Dairy products and proteins. Richardson says those go up to the Earth Cube along with the coffee grounds and other things, and that is how the Inn processes the rest of its food waste.
Q: How do you get finished compost out of a worm bin without picking the worms out by hand?
A: Stop feeding the bin. Richardson describes leaving it unfed for the next week so the worms migrate to one side, then digging up the other side for fresh compost. It gets laid out on the tarp, the bits that have not composted yet are separated out, and the rest dries before it goes to the garden.
Q: How does the Inn get to 100 percent food composting?
A: The two food systems handle everything between them, but Richardson ties the number to guest behavior: as long as they stay vigilant about clean plates at dinner, they are able to compost 100 percent of their food, and the worms are a large part of that.
Q: How do guests find out how they did on food waste?
A: On a chalkboard in the dining hall. Brandon Acuff says that at the end of dinner service staff gather everyone’s plates, look at the scraps, and post a smiley face or a frowny face based on how the group did on the clean plate plan. The result comes up during the tour and gets posted after dinner and after breakfast.
Q: Where does the finished compost end up?
A: In the native Georgia plant beds. Acuff says they take the compost from the worms and the Earth Cube, treat it, and bring it out to the gardens, and that it gives some amazing blooms through the year. Whatever food waste does come back on plates gets composted and ends up in the same beds.
Q: What do they tell people who want to start composting at home?
A: Janson’s point is that every compost bin is individualized and the Hike Inn’s remote location makes some of its practices different from what someone would do at home. Every person who has worked on the bins did their own research and focused on their own bin. She encourages people to try it and not give up immediately. It is a work in progress system, she says, and it becomes part of the day-to-day.
Additional Resources
No publications, websites, contact information, or upcoming events are mentioned on camera. Speaker roles and titles are not stated beyond Brandon Acuff identifying himself as a naturalist with the Hike Inn.
Processed for UGA Center for Urban Agriculture / Master Composter Course Archives
Source: Stage 2 Archive Package, GTBOP_Archive_Summary_HikeInnCompost.md