Two ISU researchers are developing ways to turn waste into a potential new market for recycled organics.Tom Glanville, associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, and Tom Richards, associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, are researching compost to see if it significantly reduces erosion and runoff from new or reconstructed roadway embankments and ditches. The $190,000 study, sponsored by Iowa State, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Iowa Department of Transportation, will take two and a half years to complete, Glanville said.He said they are finding ways to use the compost from three of the 76 facilities in the state that divert 350,000 tons of yard waste, sewage sludge and industrial organics from landfills each year.”Compost is any organic decay, such as leaves and grasses, in our environment that is broken down by natural bacteria and that is beneficial to roadside vegetation growth,” he said.Composting has been prevalent since 1989, when the Iowa Legislature passed a law mandating a 50 percent reduction in the amount of solid waste entering landfills by 2000, Glanville said. A research site was established at an overpass near Ames, where the researchers are testing for erosion control on two types of test plots — vegetated and unvegetated soil, said Russell Persyn, project field coordinator. The study tests two types of erosion, Glanville said. Interrill erosion is caused by the impact of raindrops and water movement across the surface of the soil, and rill erosion is caused by the flow of water in channels in the soil.The project uses a rainfall simulator, developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to provide consistent, uniform rainfall for testing the amount of erosion on different plots, Glanville said. The researchers are testing the quantity and quality of grasses and measuring soil characteristics, runoff quantity and soil erosion on the treated slopes, said Persyn, graduate student in agricultural and biosystems engineering. The project is also testing water quality using this compost, he said. “We are trying to measure the amount of metals within the compost as well,” he said.Some of the benefits to composting are reducing organic wastes from entering landfills, pathogen destruction and lowering risk of pollution, Glanville said. “The project is very significant because there are over 112,000 miles of roadways in Iowa to maintain, and the use of compost on road construction sites may reduce erosion,” he said.