Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 19, 1992 TAG: 9201190178
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: E7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LOUDOUN LENGTH: Medium
FARMER FIGHTS TO COMPOST PAPER
Peter Knop wants to turn waste paper into fertilizer on his 1,200-acre tree farm, but officials might not be too keen on the plan.Three years ago, the 51-year-old farmer started composting tree branches and stumps, a move that landed him in a court battle as Virginia and Loudoun County officials tried to stop what they called a landfill operation.
Knop said his existing county permit to compost wood should also allow him to decompose paper.
Rather than sell the land for development, he wants to build it up with organic matter. Officials have tried to declare his operation an illegal dump in recent years, but he has prevailed.
"I've got that stubborn streak," he said. "We have the right to live our lives as we see fit as long as we don't go stomping on anybody else's rights." The technical merits of his latest initiative, a research project on paper decomposition in partnership with Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology, Virginia Tech and the Environmental Protection Administration, have yet to be established.
Knop is not a scientist by training, but rather a lawyer, banker and economist who also dabbles in agricultural experiments.
He calls his current effort agricycling, and he has applied for a patent. He says counties in Virginia and elsewhere are arranging to use his methods by license agreement.
Knop's composting system uses vines such as wisteria or Virginia creeper and fungi injected into wood - or in this new project, paper - to transform it into compost. Knop hopes the end result will help improve the clay- and rock-laden soil on his farm.
Public officials should be wooing him, not suing him, Knop said, particularly because state laws mandate recycling goals.
He knows agricycling works on wood. Because paper also is made up of cellulose, Knop reasons, the same process should work on it.
If county and state officials block the paper-composting project, "We'll take the technology to another state and let them reap the benefits," he said.