LAKELAND, Fla. — The city of Lakeland is thinking about getting into the fertilizer business — and using tons of human waste it already collects to do it.
Commissioners recently voted to spend $120,000 on a six-month study to see if it's worth constructing a composting facility with the idea of turning the waste into something far more profitable.
The board voted unanimously to hire Tampa-based GeoSyntech Consultants to perform the six-month study into whether it's worth building a $20 million composting plant to turn human waste into valuable fertilizer.
“The analysis will include a cost-benefit evaluation, taking into account initial set-up costs,” Assistant City Attorney Alex Landback said.
The facility would combine human waste — or biosolids — with yard waste, creating a nutrient-rich soil mix.
Lakeland produces about 230 tons of biosolids each month. Some of it is already used for low-grade fertilizer.
“Our process for processing the biosolids meets all required regulations before this is ever put into the composting process,” City Attorney Palmer Davis said.
Still, the rest, and tons of it, has to be hauled to the local landfill at taxpayer expense.
The idea is to waste less waste by making the poop profitable, all without creating too much of a stink in the surrounding community.
“With it being right there so close to our neighborhood I'm just really concerned about worse smells if possible and longer amounts at times. Especially longer,” neighbor Michael Wingate said.
The study will also look at how much of an odor the process might generate.
City workers are already visiting similar composting facilities around the state to see what their experience has been.
“There's one down in Fort Myers, where we went down there and toured it. And it was pretty impressive,” Robby Kniss with Lakeland Utilities said. “As a part of this assignment, we're going to view one over in Hillsborough County. They have one as well.”
If they ultimately decide to move forward with the project, Lakeland says it would also consider working with other municipalities that might be interested in creating a partnership and whether any federal or state funding might be available to help offset the expense.