Spurt Industries owner Tom Turner initiated SORT, which stands for Specialized Organics Recycling Team.

Turning a company’s waste into clean dirt
Jake Himmelspach

ZEELAND — Spurt Industries is helping companies save thousands of dollars on their waste removal and be more earth-friendly at the same time.

“About a year and a half ago, we started the SORT with Spurt program,” said Zeeland-based Spurt Industries owner Tom Turner. SORT stands for Specialized Organics Recycling Team.

“We go out to (companies) and give them two containers: one for trash and one for organic waste — that would be paper, cardboard, food waste …” Companies can even include their grass clippings or brush, he said.

By separating out the organic waste from the rest of a company’s trash and recycling it through Spurt, the savings in trash disposal adds up while also reducing the use of landfill space.

Metro Health Hospital has been using the program since April and has seen a two-ton reduction of solid waste on average per month.

“If they’re willing to take time to sort it and educate their employees to do that, they can save,” Turner said.

San Chez Bistro has been working with the SORT with Spurt program since spring of 2008. For a restaurant that was already separating its waste, the transition wasn’t hard and, in fact, simplified the process already in place. Where San Chez used to separate out its paper and cardboard, it now puts it in the same container as food waste. Marnie Vander Weide, service manager and sustainability coordinator at San Chez, said roughly 90 percent of the restaurant’s 150,000 pounds of waste now goes to Spurt — saving the company about $3,600 annually.

The SORT with Spurt program is just part one of what Spurt Industries does. After Spurt collects the organic waste, it is readied for use in nutrient-rich soil that will be sold in garden centers and retail shops, for example.

“We take the organic waste and mix it with our yard waste; then we run it through a tub grinder,” he said. “Then we lay it out in wind rows, which are big long piles, and flip those piles several times over a six- to eight-month period.”

It sounds pretty simple, but there’s a bit more science to it than that. Turner said it is important to ensure the right carbon nitrogen mix so that the waste decomposes properly in order to be sellable later.

“When we get done doing that, we put it through a screening plant and we make finished compost out of that, which could be blends or straight compost,” he said. “We sell that to the open market, whether that’s retail centers, landscapers, commercial jobs or rain garden mixes.”

Turner described a rain garden mix: “When you see a parking lot, you’ll see a dip where they collect the storm-water runoff,” he said. “They fill that with our rain garden mix and that filters the water, yet it still grows plants. We developed that with West Michigan Rain Gardens.”

The soil mixes sold by Spurt Industries are designed to “enhance and maintain plant and soil conditions, with precise formulas created especially for specific uses, such as lawns, flower beds or gardening,” according to its Web site.

“Around here soil is typically clay-based or sand-based, and at best, if it’s really black, might have 2 to 3 percent organic matter. Our top soil that has compost in it will have as much as 8 to 10 percent organic matter,” said Turner. “It’s not that important when you first plant in it, but that’s what produces the long-term growth of your plants.”

Spurt Industries has had a bit of a growth spurt of its own. Since 2008, the company has opened locations in Ada and Byron Center. More recently, the company opened a location in Wixom, northwest of Detroit, and is looking for another site in the Detroit area.

Information on the SORT with Spurt program can be found at www.sortwithspurt.com; www.spurtindustries.com is the general company site.