Alternative Use Found for Valley Rice Straw

SACRAMENTO—Each year in California, more than 1.5 million tons of rice straw are generated at harvest time. Farmers have traditionally burned the straw, but with legislation phasing out this practice, the question becomes what to do with the increasing amounts of rice straw. Ron Kampschmidt of K&R Farming in Willows is one of many businessmen who has found an answer and he did it with the help of CalMAX, the materials exchange program of the California Integrated Waste Management Board.

In 1996, Kampschmidt placed an ad in the Board's bi-monthly CalMAX catalog–designed to help individuals and businesses make exchanges of wanted or available waste items–and in turn was able to market more than 175 tons of baled rice straw to be used as mulch and insulation. The Board acknowledged his efforts this month by recognizing his company as the "Match of the Catalog" winner for its March/April 1997 issue.

"Mr. Kampschmidt's efforts illustrate that strong markets can be created when we all work together to reuse valuable materials that might otherwise have been landfilled," said Board Chairman Daniel G. Pennington. "CalMAX and similar exchange programs at the local level are integral parts of the State's push to cut its trash in half by 2000. The success of these programs once again shows us that one person's trash can indeed be another's person's treasure."

A 1996 fire in the Mendocino National Forest presented Kampschmidt with an opportunity to begin creating markets for baled rice straw. After the fire was extinguished, he sold 5,000 bales of rice straw to the U.S. Forest Service to be used as a mulch for reseeding and erosion control.

Kampschmidt later placed an "available" ad in CalMAX under its organic materials section and received numerous inquiries from across the state. In turn, he was able to sell 35 tons to a landscape contractor to be used as mulch and another 70 tons to be used as insulation in new Central Valley homes. Currently, he has a 70-ton transaction pending with a Los Angeles-basin developer.

In addition to Mr. Kampschmidt's efforts, the Air Resources Board has been working for years with generators of rice straw to help them find viable alternatives to burning rice straw. Their efforts have resulted in rice straw being reused in newsprint, by manufacturers of Japanese Saki, as well as in fiberboard and ethanol fuels.

The success Kampschmidt has had with CalMAX is not unique. Since the program began in 1992, markets have been created for more than 415,000 tons of materials that were headed for landfills. This diversion has resulted in a savings to businesses of more than $4 million.

CalMAX is a free program of the Waste Board. For more information or to receive a catalog, call 1-800-553-2962, or log on to the CalMAX web site at: www.ciwmb.ca.gov/CalMAX/.

The six-member Integrated Waste Management Board is responsible for protecting the public's health and safety and the environment through management of the 45 million tons of solid waste generated in California each year. The Board's mandate is to work in partnership with local government, industry, and the public to achieve a 50 percent reduction in waste disposed by the year 2000, while ensuring environmentally safe landfill disposal capacity.

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