WAUSEON, Ohio — On a fall Friday in Fulton County, a group of state government and regulators toured a couple of farms to see how they recycle. The group quickly found out - this isn't your grandpa's recycling. The extensive recycling efforts on these farms work to protect the land and water.
At Andre Farms in Wauseon, a device called the "Tiger" keeps waste from going to, well, waste. If you see the Tiger in action, you'll see you can feed it food of any kind. From Skittles to Spam, the Tiger works on it and instead of things heading to a landfill, the waste is pumped outside for composting. It also crushes the cans, and cleans them up for recycling.
Yard waste, animal waste, and food waste all are recycled at Andre Farms. The water’s taken out if it and put in a lagoon. In time it’ll be used to water the fields out on this farm. The solids in time will break down organically and be used for fertilizer. They aim for 100% recycling.
“And making nutrients out of that so we can grow crops with that and also keeping tin and aluminum recyclable products instead of going to the landfill so we can send those back to make your new car and pop bottles," said Nate Andre of Andre Farms.
Water on the fields goes through tiling and it's stored, filtered and used on the 1,500 acres of crops. This means no runoff to harm the lake, the Andres say.
At nearby Oakshade Dairy, manure goes through a recycling process that's caught the eye of Ohio legislators. This dairy farm produces 12,000 gallons of milk a day and tons of manure.
That the manure is processed. The solids are composted and used for cow bedding. The liquid goes in a lagoon, eventually to be used as high quality organic fertilizer.
“I toured both these farms last spring i was so impressed with the work they’re doing and everything they’re doing to protect our water and conserve and recycle.. I wanted to get the directors here," said State Sen. Theresa Gavarone (R., 2nd District).”
These farms put their efforts into better soil health and better crops, harnessing the science of agriculture.