Food Scraps Composting: Keeping nutrients in and plastics out

Workshop on diverting food from the waste stream identifies innovations as well as continuing challenges.

by Mary Edmonds and Amanda Kimble-Evans

Almost everyone has heard of “farm to fork” and the importance of food taking a more direct path from the field to our mouths. But getting the food waste back to the farms is an issue with which fewer folks are familiar. The composting industry is vibrantly alive despite working mostly behind the scenes and has had its share of both good and bad press.

The Rodale Institute is currently working on a project to help farmers, extension agents, waste managers, and compost producers create higher-quality compost from existing manure, food-, and leaf-waste materials and better manage nutrients in backyards and farm fields. Supported by a USDA NRCS PA EQIP Conservation Innovation Grant and in collaboration with a neighboring farm and our local municipality, we’re initiating a comparative composting demonstration to show how different styles of management impact final compost quality, nutrient content and nutrient retention. More specifically, we’re focusing on temperature-related turning as compared to timed turning.

As part of the project, Rodale Institute hosted a one-day training program in partnership with The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) and the Environmental Protection Agency for existing and potential compost practitioners and policy makers earlier this fall. Speakers from organizations that work with all aspects of food-waste composting presented issues related to food scraps generation, hauling, and composting practices to help participants understand the ins and outs of starting and running a successful food composting operation.

Patti Olenick, Sustainability Specialist with Weis Markets, talked about their multi-pronged approach to reducing food waste, of which composting is one piece. According to Olenick, 75 percent of grocery store waste is organic matter, so composting can make quite an impact in the waste stream. But their waste-reduction hierarchy includes steps such as ordering to meet rather than exceed demand, feeding the hungry and feeding livestock before composting. Composting and then, as a last resort, landfilling are the final two options for their food waste.

Olenick says the biggest issue for Weis Markets’ composting initiative has been transportation. Without a single hauler, the corporate offices have to negotiate and coordinate transportation on a case-by-case basis. Variation between store locations and collection haulers on everything from prices to rules and regulations can get complicated.

Bob Cougle of Cougle’s Recycling who has worked with the Rodale Institute on developing the infrastructure for our food waste composting program addressed innovations in hauling and stressed the importance of good communication between partners.

Leah Nichols, Director of Culinary Brand Development at Rodale, Inc. and Andy Barsky of Sodexo also talked about their larger waste-stream-reduction goals that include composting. From food bank donations to more made-to-order options, they’ve both managed to reduce food waste overall. Nichols believes a strong composting program starts in the back of the house. She uses training, vigilance and refresher courses for the servers and cooks to make sure garbage materials don’t end up in the compost bins. Barsky says monetary bonuses have worked well for Sodexo—providing an incentive for ensuring other garbage waste doesn’t end up in with food scraps and vice versa.

Changes to the front of the house make that task easier, too. Sodexo has completely eliminated their use of Styrofoam and the Rodale Café put a lot of effort into reducing the environmental impacts of their “to go” materials, switching to all recyclable or compostable containers, napkins and utensils.

According to Nichols, while their paper products are compostable, they stick strictly to recyclable plastics. The plasticizers used to make compostable plastic products don’t actually break down; they simply get smaller and smaller until they are no longer visible. The materials continue to reside in the soil and water. Although the movement toward compostable plastic products is honorable, the true environmental impact is yet unknown.

Ned Foley, owner/farmer of Two Particular Acres talked in the afternoon about on-farm composting and the group toured the Rodale Institute on-farm composting site. Discussions swirled around the difference between aiming for a waste-free system and a system that cycles nutrients. The goal of a compost program should not be to simply get rid of waste materials, but reclaim useable nutrients from the waste stream (food waste) and allow them to benefit the growth of new nutrients (food crops).

Composters, retailers, waste brokers and farmers—attendees and speakers alike—all shared their ideas for fitting the pieces of the food waste composting puzzle together in an interactive discussion panel. All were interested in finding the most cost-neutral path, stressing that composting to be economically viable for the long term success of our food systems. And everyone agreed creating educational and training opportunities for all the players, especially consumers, will be key.

This material is based upon work supported by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under Grant Agreement Number 69-2D37-11-499. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.