Evaluating Options and Cost Saving Potential from Food Scrap Collection and Composting

1. Evaluating Options and Cost Saving Potential from Food Scrap Collection andComposting City of Glendale Zero Waste Action Plan Zero Waste Associates Rich Flammer Hidden Resources www.compostingconsultant.com

2. • More than 40 percent of all food produced in America goes uneaten • 29 million tons of wasted food waste each year • Cost U.S. $100 billion annually • American restaurants discard more than 6,000 tons of food everyday • U.S. households throw away an average of 600 pounds of food annually • 10-15% of what we landfill Using Contemporary Archaeology and Applied Anthropology to Understand Food Loss in the American Food System Timothy W. Jones. PhD

3. What are we throwing away?

4. $20/ton $25 ton

5. Value of Pollution Reductions from Recycling & Composting Source Dr. Jeffrey Morris - 8/08CRRA

6. Hierarchy of Options Source reduction (methods to prevent wasted food and other discards) Donation to food banks (feed people) Onsite composting or other processing technology Collection for delivery to farms (feed animals) Collection for delivery to farms (direct land application) Collection for centralized facility creating fertilizers, soil amendments (composting) or mulches Collection for centralized facility creating fertilizers, soil amendments (composting) or mulches

7. Swedish Medical Center, Seattle Retail soup overproduction was reduced 65% through batch cooking and changes in production procedures. Expired bakery waste was reduced 29% through a change in purchasing procedures. Patient overproduction was reduced 46% by targeting production levels on the non-center of the plate items such as starches, soups and gravies. ValuWaste Tracker Iowa Health-Des Moines (Iowa Methodist and Blank Children's Hospital) Overall food waste fell 42% from the beginning of waste tracking in Jan 2008 through August 2008. www.leanpath.com

8. A new spin on pay-as-you throw… • About 30 restaurants in Hong Kong are using fines to reduce wasted food • $1.30 charged for each leftover sushi at the Ming General restaurant • About two customers fined a week • All-you-can-eat restaurants in the Philippines, Australia and Canada - also fine wasteful customers

9. Fast Food…Fast Source Reduction Red Lobster switched from paper to cloth napkins and diverted more than 23,000 tons of paper from the landfill annually Wendy’s stopped printing on their paper napkins and diverted 28 tons a year; Changes in packaging of pickles, mustard and mayonnaise diverted an additional 500 tons annually McDonalds switched from bags to cartons for its hash browns and realized a 74% decrease in paper usage, keeping 1,700 tons of material from becoming waste

10. Peerless Coffee and Tea One change of coffee packaging machines and reduced the amount of Mylar waste by 95 percent and saves $100,000 annually in reduced packaging supply costs Ghirardelli Chocolate Company One change going from cardboard boxes to durable totes cut annual packaging costs by $520,000, and prevents 350 tons of soiled cardboard waste each year

11. Food Donation as a Resource Management Method • From fiscal year 2000, approximately 10,614 tons of food recovered • Oregon Food Bank estimates 2,122 tons would have been landfilled • From 1999 to 2005, nearly $700,000 in grants from Portland Metro • Estimated additional food recovery as a result of the grant program was 9,000 tons annually

12. Somat eCorrect

14. Environmental Benefits of Managing Organics Onsite • • Low impact management of facility’s own compostable residuals • • Improved soil and vegetation become a sink for C02 • Decreased pollution of water sources and degradation of soil • Savings in fertilizer costs and reduced pesticide use • Water conservation

15. Isles of Scilly, UK 78% of its residents using home composters United Kingdom • More than one million home compost bins distributed • Participation results in almost 200,000 tons/year of diversion Dr. A.D. Knipe, Environmental Research & Consultancy

16. On-site Composting

17. Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia town with Zero Waste Goal • Green Cones and Earth Machines for individual backyard composting • Neighborhood composters for use on streets and multi-family • Earth Tubs for businesses • All organics processed at a community level • 41% of 60% diverted are organics • 85% particpation rate in backyard/neighborhood composting • Public drop-off site for yard trimmings

18. Kauai • More than 1,500 bins distributed • 2006 survey results showed average of 1,500 pounds of food scraps and yard trimmings diverted per household annually, or 7.79 tons over ten years • $5.78 per ton cost

19. A look at one of the high tech food scrap processing units Princeton University has been using for the past 12 years…

20. Cost: $12/day (Savings of over $20,000 each year)

21. Collection

22. The Pedal People Cooperative, Inc., • Provides collection in Northampton, Florence and Leeds, Mass.by bicycles pulling trailers • Eleven worker/owners have built collection program to include 311 households and 23 small businesses • Organics collection for 87 sites (began in 2007) Guiguinto, Bulacan, Philippines - ”Eco-boys" in pedicabs (bicycles with a side car) collect about 1/2 ton day for sale to rice farmers after static pile composting

23. www.pedalpeople.com

24. Professionally managed, any material can be composted with an outdoor, open-windrow process at any location without public nuisance or negative environmental impact.

25. Thanks for attending our workshop! And thanks for composting!