Composting Facility

Athens Services has owned and operated the American Organics composting facility since 2009. Today, American Organics is renowned as one of Southern California’s highest-tech composting facilities with state-of-the-art methods for organics waste recycling.

Athens Services provides composting through our state-of-the-art facility, American Organics. We process many types of organics materials, including food waste. Currently, we provide food waste collection and composting for municipalities and food service establishments throughout Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. American Organics can create compost blends suitable for industrial, agricultural, municipal, residential or commercial use.

AMERICAN ORGANICS
Hours

7:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Monday – Friday

AMERICAN ORGANICS
Contact

Phone
(760) 246-7946

EXPLORE THE FACILITY

  • Scale House
  • 2Processing Building
  • 3Tipping Floor
  • 4Auger Screen
  • 5Processing Line
  • 6Magnet
  • 7Grinder
  • 8Covered Aerated Static Pile (CASP)
  • 9Windrow Turner
  • 10Screening Machines
  • 11Compost Piles

SCALE HOUSE

The scale house is the first place organic waste trucks go to at the facility. Underground digital scales measure the weight of each truck and then measure the load. Each scale is equipped with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, which communicates and records the load weight.

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Scale House

The scale house is the first place organic waste trucks go to at the facility. Underground digital scales measure the weight of each truck and then measure the load. Each scale is equipped with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, which communicates and records the load weight.

Benefits:

  • Promotes safety
  • Records load weights quickly and accurately
  • Increases efficiency

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Processing Building

The truck then drives to the processing building and offloads organic waste onto the tipping floor. The building is part of Athens Services’ recent renovation to the facility. The building helps prevent debris and odors from infiltrating nearby rivers and neighbors.

Benefits:

  • Newest renovation to Facility
  • Minimizes environmental impacts
  • Encloses debris and odors

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Tipping Floor

Workers and equipment remove large objects or contamination on the tipping floor before the organic waste goes onto the sorting belt.

Benefits:

  • The enclosed tipping floor keeps dust and odors inside, reducing environmental impacts to the surrounding area
  • Spotters keep visitors and trucks moving safely throughout the tipping floor area
  • Visual inspection keeps large objects and contamination out of the sorting system

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Auger Screen

Organic waste is then sorted by size using an innovative auger screen. American Organics is the first facility to use this technology, letting items three inches or smaller fall through a conveyer belt to outside the processing building. Anything larger than three inches continues to the processing line to get further sorted.

Benefits:

  • Efficiently sorts organic waste for processing
  • Reduces how much sorting has to be done manually, improving worker safety

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Processing Line

On the processing line, contamination is further removed from the organics waste. Workers remove non-organic materials such as plastic and textiles. They also remove palm fronds and cacti that can jam equipment.

Benefits:

  • Increases how much organic material is recovered
  • Prevents equipment from getting jammed

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Magnet

A powerful magnet removes metals from the line and places them into a separate bin to be recycled.

Benefits:

  • Minimizes risk associated with sorting sharp metals
  • Maximizes product recovery and purity

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Grinder

The sorted organic waste material that is larger than three inches ends up in a grinder to be ground down to a smaller size and then put into the stockpile.

Benefits:

  • Reduces the time needed for the composting process

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Covered Aerated Static Pile (CASP)

The organic waste is transferred outside the processing building. There, the material is piled in windrows on a concrete slab. Then it is soaked with recycled water until it reaches a moisture level of 60%.

Powerful blowers pump air through aerated pipes in the slab to force air into the material, speeding up the composting process. The covered aerated static piles (CASP) maintain 131 + degrees Fahrenheit for 72 hours to eliminate any pathogens.

Benefits:

  • Speeds up composting process from 6 months to 2 months
  • Eliminates any potential pathogens

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Windrow Turner

A SCARAB compost turner machine mixes material in the windrows several more times. The material cures for 30 days.

Benefits:

  • Improves the speed at which material cures

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Screening Machines

In the final stages of processing, screens sort out any remaining contaminants from the material.

Benefits:

  • Maximizes organic waste recovery and purity
  • Creates high quality compost

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Compost Piles

Material is placed in piles to be cured before shipping to customers and communities.

Combining innovative processes and groundbreaking technology, American Organics cuts total composting processing time from six months to two months. That enables the facility to keep up with increasing demand due to new laws directing organic waste away from landfills to be recycled. This approach also reduces waste, cuts greenhouse gases, and helps parks, farms, and gardens stay healthier.

Benefits:

  • Faster processing
  • Meets increasing demand for organic waste disposal options
  • Cleaner compost
  • Maximizes diversion rates

SUPPORTING SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Keeping SoCal communities safe, healthy, and sustainable

Combining innovation and safety culture, these facilities have been able to help communities remain in compliance with state mandates, while fostering a safer and healthier environment. Athens Services has invested millions of dollars into its recycling and organics infrastructure to support a more sustainable environment and help cities meet their zero-waste goals.

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