When Better Earth Compost launched in 1998, the mission was to help the community in a new way. Now, 23 years later, that mission remains the same.
Founded by Paul and June Rosenbohm, who were primarily dairy farmers, Better Earth Compost first launched as a method of processing manure produced by their own farm as well as their neighbors’. Now, led by Paul and June’s son, Luke, and his wife Yvonne, Better Earth Compost is working with local universities, restaurants, and residents to turn organic waste into nutrient-rich compost for residential and commercial use.
Their expansive facility in southwest Peoria is built to handle a variety of organic matter, and they have it coming in from all angles.
Whether it’s yard waste from an ongoing contract with Peoria Disposal Company, or food scraps from the dining halls at Bradley University, when organic waste arrives at the facility, it is quickly processed and placed in “wind rows'' to start the aerobic composting process.
“It’s like baking a cake,” said Luke Rosenbohm, who oversees day-to-day operations at the facility. “You gotta have the right ingredients, and then you gotta have the oven on at the right temperature. So we’re getting our temperatures up to 130-150 degrees consistently so that way it’s breaking everything down [and] it’s getting any pathogens.”
These rows are agitated daily for up to three months before being screened for larger, unwanted substances like plastic and various metals. The screened material then rests for another six to eight months before being bagged and labeled for retail sale.
Along with the yard and food waste, Rosenbohm is also working with the Army Corps of Engineers to solve an ongoing problem with excess river silt.
“All of our rivers are filling up with sediments from waterways getting washed out,” said Rosenbohm. “It’s kind of like we have to reapply it where it came from.”
He reiterates that, like any material Better Earth takes in, the end goal with the silt is to manipulate it into a retail-ready product—a problem Rosenbohm is excited to solve.
“Everything that comes in eventually goes out,” said Rosenbohm. “Everything just has a lease on the land here—at some point, the lease it up, and it’s got to go.”
Using that same problem-solving energy, Rosenbohm brought Tremont-based organization Tazewell County Resource Centers (TCRC) into the Better Earth system. With a commercial kitchen at one of TCRC’s facilities, Community Food Sales Supervisor Amanda Rudd says Better Earth was able to present a more cost-effective solution for the business compared to typical trash removal.
“We were able to cut down our commercial garbage pickup from twice a week to once a week,” said Rudd. “It not only offset any costs from what Better Earth was charging, but TCRC as a whole organization is saving thousands of dollars every year because of that switch.”
Rudd says that their involvement with Better Earth comes full-circle in the form of a farmers market made possible by a collaboration with the Miller Center in Pekin.
“We were able to start off the year in our garden using Better Earth compost...and we were able to produce a lot of vegetables throughout the season to provide produce at the Pekin Farmers Market,” said Rudd. “So that was just really cool to feel like our food waste went to that compost and now we’re using it to grow our garden.”
Rosenbohm says Better Earth also saw an uptick in gardening that correlated with the beginning of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. His interpretation is that, with more free time on their hands, more people decided to start a garden.
“COVID’s changed a lot of things, and some of it is just being more mindful,” said Rosenbohm. “I think people are starting to realize, ‘Hey, I’m going to start eating healthier...what should I do with [the food waste] so it’s better for the environment because not just my health is important, but so is the environment’s health.’”
After a busy 2020, they expected 2021 to return to a normal pace, but business has continued to boom.
“I think a lot of it was people finally had time to do something they’ve always wanted to do,” said Rosenbohm. “I think society slowed down a little bit to where people could reallocate their priorities.”
Dr. Sherri Morris, Chair of the Biology Department and Co-Director of the Center for STEM Education at Bradley University, says that from a biology perspective, gardening with compost is one of the best things you can do to improve growth.
“Compost...provides a really nice source of nutrients for those plants, so those plants can grow bigger, they can grow faster, and get to the nutrients they need without putting down more roots,” said Morris.
Compost is also able to retain greater levels of moisture versus conventional topsoil, so gardeners can even save on their water bills.
“You may be able to water less, but even better, when we have rainfall events, more of that moisture will be trapped in that compost, so it’ll stay near the plants as opposed to running off and causing as much erosion,” said Morris. “So the benefit in terms of water is also very valuable.”
With more local residents seeking out Better Earth products, Rosenbohm hopes the composting process will begin to appeal to more people. He believes that education is the best tool for expanding their mission to reduce food waste in landfills, and that that education should start early in life.
“If we really want to see this going somewhere great, we’ve got to get the younger kids involved so that way we can train an entire generation,” said Rosenbohm. “Nothing pushes a movement better than the kids saying, ‘This is what we need to do.’”
To help new teachers bring environmental education to the classroom, Dr. Morris has spearheaded different projects at Bradley University.
“One of the programs that we run through the Center for STEM Education has been a masters degree for STEM education for K-8 teachers, and one of the projects that they were working on...was a study of composting for use in kindergarten classrooms,” said Morris. “That was an isolated project but...the basic principles are ones that really do translate into some really valuable ways that we can influence our local environment.”
At Better Earth, Rosenbohm hopes to continue his efforts to make the future a little brighter for his and Yvonne’s two children, and one day, he hopes to be bested by them.
“[Composting] is something that we can do now...I hope my boys sit there when they’re in their 30s and say, ‘Dad, I can’t believe this was the only solution you could come up with, we found something way better,’” said Rosenbohm.
