Three Saginaw Valley State University students and a professor have found a way to make composting fast and simple. May SVSU graduates Jason Haubenstricker, Douglas Butterfield and Brennan MacMillan took Professor Edward Meisel’s idea for a compost machine, redesigned it and built it. The result is the WFARM, or Worm Factory; Automation and Recycling Matter. The machine takes any natural compost material — food scraps, grass clippings and coffee grounds from SVSU’s dining halls and Starbucks — and turns it into rich, organic soil and fertilizer in just five days. “The WFARM is efficient, convenient and could have a considerable positive impact on the environment,” said Butterfield, a 24-year-old Williams Township resident and Nexteer Automotive product engineer.

The compost material first goes through a grinder -- run by electricity for one minute per day -- then Red Wriggler worms break it down into vermicompost and worm tea. The WFARM runs automatically, so it does not require the work other compost systems do, Meisel said. It weighs 400 pounds empty and the protoype cost less than $2,000 to build. People can use a lawn tractor to move it, Meisel said. Haubenstricker, a 21-year-old Birch Run-native, worked for Meisel in the SVSU Greenhouses, and asked the professor if he had an idea for their senior design class project. Meisel did. The chemistry professor and SVSU Greenhouse director had created an early version of the WFARM, and believed it needed improvements. “It was a neat experience,” Haubenstricker said of building the WFARM. Butterfield said it was rewarding to see the project transition from an idea to a working unit. “The first time we let the unit run autonomously and came back days later to find many pounds of waste completely transformed was a great moment,” he said.

This fall, Meisel said he will test the WFARM’s capabilities; he believes it could handle up to 100 pounds of food a week. It can easily handle 25 pounds of food, he said. All three students found the project helped during job interviews. Butterfield said the machine was a great talking point for his interviews, and employers were impressed with the work. The students stayed under budget and finished it ahead of schedule, he said. Working on such a hands-on project may have contributed to Haubenstricker’s job offer from John Deere, he said. He recently moved to Loredo, Texas to work for the company. Haubenstricker said the students had to learn how to communicate, contract vendors for materials. They students created a 3-D, computer-generated model before building it over their Christmas break. “It was really cool seeing it progress through all the different stages,” Haubenstricker said. MacMillan, 22, and a Bay City resident said the project allowed the students to do more than design a machine. “It helps us understand that taking the shop’s mindset while designing a project creates a better work environment,” said the Hemlock Semiconductor engineer.

The three students also worked with a marketing class to investigate the feasibility of selling the machine to the public. The WFARM design could be scaled up or down, depending on who would use it. Meisel said he is looking into building and selling WFARM with help from the Center for Business and Economic Development at SVSU. He said he believes people all over the world could use the WFARM, from farmers to residents of countries such as Haiti.