Good composting facility design is where a project's economics, compliance, and daily operations are quietly decided. Wanu Organics designs composting operations that align with client goals, regulatory requirements, and the realities of running a site day to day — from process flow and equipment evaluation to full site layout for new facilities, expansions, and operational improvements. Wanu can also guide or manage permitting depending on what your project requires.
Design that starts with how the site will run
A facility that looks efficient on paper can still bottleneck in practice. Material moves through receiving, mixing, active composting, curing, screening, and storage — and each stage needs space, access, and a logical place in the flow. Trucks, loaders, and turners have to move without crossing incoming feedstock over finished product. When that flow isn't designed deliberately, the operation ends up fighting its own site every day. Wanu designs the layout around the actual movement of material and equipment, so the site works with the crew instead of against them. The same discipline applies to expansions and retrofits, where the real challenge is improving flow and capacity without shutting the operation down.
What facility design covers
- Site layout and material flow — receiving, mixing, active composting, curing, screening, and finished-product storage, arranged to keep incoming and finished streams separated.
- Pad design and surfacing — sizing and grading the working pad for the intended equipment and throughput, with a surface appropriate to the site and the permit.
- Process and method selection — matching turned windrow, aerated static pile, or in-vessel systems to the feedstocks, climate, throughput, and budget.
- Equipment evaluation — turners, screens, loaders, blowers, and mixing equipment sized to the design throughput rather than over- or under-built.
- Stormwater and contact-water management — grading, containment, and handling of leachate and contact water to meet permit conditions.
- Capacity and throughput — sizing active and curing areas to the tons per year the site actually needs to process, with room to grow.
Method selection: windrow, ASP, or in-vessel
There is no single right composting method — only the right one for a given feedstock mix, site, and set of constraints. Turned windrows are simple and flexible but need space and turner time. Aerated static piles (ASP) trade turning for blowers and controls, and can help with odor and footprint. In-vessel systems buy process control and containment at a higher capital cost. Wanu weighs these against your feedstocks, throughput, climate, and regulatory setting rather than defaulting to a single approach, so the method fits the project instead of the other way around.
Built on real operations experience
Wanu's design work is grounded in 15 years across the public and private sectors, including 5 years working directly alongside composting operations teams, more than 120 site visits, and involvement in over 60 composting projects. Before founding Wanu, Jorge Montezuma, PE, led the engineering team at Atlas Organics, overseeing design, permitting, compliance, and technical services for 13 composting operations across 7 states. That time spent alongside operations teams is why Wanu designs for the crew that has to run the site — not just for the drawing.
Where facility design fits
Facility design rarely stands alone. It usually follows a feasibility study that confirms the project makes sense, and it feeds the permitting and construction that come after. If you're earlier in the process, a feasibility study may be the better place to start; if you're evaluating an existing site, technical due diligence looks at how it was built and how it runs today.