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
Mar 30, 2015
Evaluating Options and Cost Saving Potential from
Food Scrap Collection and Composting
City of Glendale Zero Waste Action Plan
Zero Waste AssociatesRich FlammerHidden Resourceswww.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 annually
• 10-15% of what we landfill
Using Contemporary Archaeology and AppliedAnthropology to Understand Food Loss in the American Food SystemTimothy W. Jones. PhD
What are we throwing away?
$20/ton $25 ton
Value of Pollution Reductions from Recycling & Composting
Discard Type Environmental Value (US$/ton)
Food Scraps 59-97
Yard & Garden Debris
58-67
Compostable Paper
49-71
Source Dr. Jeffrey Morris - 8/08CRRA
Hierarchy of Options
Collection for centralized facility creating fertilizers, soil amendments (composting) or mulches
Collection for centralized facility creating fertilizers, soil amendments (composting) or mulches
Source reduction (methods to prevent wasted food and other discards)
Collection for delivery to farms (feed animals)
Collection for delivery to farms (direct land application)
Onsite composting or other processing technology
Donation to food banks (feed people)
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.
ValuWaste Tracker
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.www.leanpath.com
• 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
A new spin on pay-as-you throw…
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 by95 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
• 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 programwas 9,000 tons annually
Food Donation as a Resource Management Method
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
• Savings in fertilizer costs and reduced pesticide use• Water conservation
United Kingdom
• More than one million home compost bins distributed
• Participation results in almost 200,000 tons/year of diversion
Isles of Scilly, UK
78% of its residents using home composters
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
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
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)
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!