Evaluating Options and Cost Saving Potential
from
Food Scrap Collection and Composting
City of Glendale Zero Waste
Action Plan
Zero Waste Associates
Rich Flammer
Hidden Resources
www.compostingconsultant.com
• 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 annuall
• 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
What are we throwing away?
$20/ton
$25 ton
Value of Pollution Reductions from
Recycling & Composting
Discard Type
Food Scraps
Yard & Garden
Debris
Compostable Paper
Environmental Value
(US$/ton)
59-97
58-67
49-71
Source Dr. Jeffrey Morris - 8/08CRRA
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
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.
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.
Patient overproduction was
reduced 46% by targeting
production levels on the noncenter of the plate items such as
starches, soups and gravies.
www.leanpath.com
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
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
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
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
Somat eCorrect
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
• Water conservation
• Savings in fertilizer costs and
reduced pesticide use
Isles of Scilly, UK
United Kingdom
78% of its residents using home
composters
• 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
On-site Composting
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
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
A look at one of the high tech food scrap
processing units Princeton University has
been using for the past 12 years…
Cost: $12/day
(Savings of over $20,000 each year)
Collection
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
www.pedalpeople.com
Professionally managed, any material can be composted
with an outdoor, open-windrow process at any location
without public nuisance or negative environmental impact.
Thanks for attending our workshop!
And thanks for composting!