What: Co-composting coffee processing and yard waste for small coffee farms
Who: William Chardon, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich
When: Thursday, February. 25, 2021, 5 p.m.
Where: Virtual (Zoom meeting)
Fruit farming and processing one's own coffee can be satisfying, but what to do with all the waste? In this presentation, William Chardon will discuss a co-composting system being developed on a local farm. It produces compost based on all organic farm waste, taking advantage of both the digestate of an on-site bio-gas reactor and the biochar produced from the farm wood surplus. The co-composting system has the potential to improve the local waste management create a valuable product for soil quality enhancement.
William Chardon is a master student at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, in Zürich. He is interested in biogeochemistry and pollutant dynamics in environmental media. He has been in Kona these past 4 months working on his thesis project on Werner Thie's and Beatrice Borne's coffee and fruit farm.
Photo above of composting trials. Front row: digestate piles, second row: biochar with digestate, third row: biochar, fourth row: control.
Schedule and format:
5 p.m. start. With the virtual format, people are less likely to be stuck in traffic, so we're starting on time. The Zoom meeting room will be open at least 10 minutes beforehand.
Pupus: as we will be virtual, feel free to have your own drinks and pupus. Please mute your microphone when crunching on chips!
Zoom link: email Rod Hinman, and I'll send you the link. I will also have the link in the announcement email sent to people on the mailing list. Scroll to the bottom of this page and subscribe.
Video of the presentation: