Full circle: compost from lawn trimmings revamps superfund site

摘要

Aresearcher in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences recently discovered a way to revive sterile soil from an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund site using lawn trimmings from community waste. Richard Stehouwer, assistant professor of environmental soils, under contract with U.S. EPA, developed a mix of composted leaves and grass to make a once sterile soil healthy enough to support plantings. "By adding compost, we didn't have to haul in new soil" Stehouwer says. "We didn't robprime farmlands of valuable topsoil, which also saved dollars they weren't properly handled and stored.