Is Vermi-Culture Composting a Solution to Supermarket Food Waste?

We have the beach, the sand, the waves, and the weather in Santa Monica......

and also Vermi-culture composting @ Santa Monica City College.

'Vermicomposting' as you most likely already know is a system that combines food waste, moderate temperature (65 - 85 degrees fahrenheit), and a worm bed in which the food waste is deposited. What makes this process so appealing to the supermarket industry are three basics:

Limited Space Requirements: it is about the length and width of a compactor, 17' x 5'x 2' deep, and can be scaleable to the needs of the store. Additionally, there is no odor so placement could be in the backroom next to the compactor or outside next to the dumpster like SM City College; white bin on the right.

Cost Effective: Approximately $75,000 per system, and carbon credits may be available.

See vermitech.com for info.

Reinforces cradle-to-cradle philosophy while giving back to the earth via healthier soil.

Listen to my podcast about vermiculture composting as well; http://bit.ly/aFJlb7

The 25th Annual "BioCycle" conference in beautiful San Diego, California finished on Thursday. The BioCycle conference brings together pioneers and practitioners of composting, organics recycling, and renewable energy. In addition, BioCycle is a monthly magazine.

This year the conference went 'zero waste'. Attendees were asked to recycle and/or compost their food waste and other paper materials in bins. A plan was in place to have the "Greenery", the City of San Diego composting facility, pick up the bins for processing and report on our success rate at our field trip to the Greenery.

Pictured below is our food and paper waste for two days. Not much because it does not include pre-consumer waste from the hotel kitchen, nor the shipping cardboard from the displays, unfortunately. The two piles reflect compostable material versus non-compostable. Note the styrofoam container, name badge, wax-coated beverage cups that attendees disposed of in the "compostable bin" at the conference.

The conference diversion rate was 75%.

All this leads me to the question - if 200 people from the recycling industry have a 75% diversion rate, can a state like California succeed in achieving a 75% recycling rate as mandated by AB 939?

Consider this: The city of LA wastes 40,000 tons per day, or 1 ton per person a year. Puente Hills landfill, the largest in the nation, and servicing Socal, closes October 27, 2013.

Do we, as Californians or as a nation have a chance in achieving and succeeding this? Do we as consumers and manufacturers understand what is recyclable? compostable? biodegradable?

In a ten-week tees, the Greenery composted and documented food and paper waste and saw something that was quite surprising...certified biodegradable utensils do not break down. This is a problem.

I am working with the supermarket industry to achieve zero food waste to landfills. Is this realistic?

Watch for next week's blog on Verma-composting from Santa Monica City College!

As always, your comments are most appreciated.

Diverting Food Waste from Landfills

I've been in the supermarket industry for 15+ years, and am amazed that we still struggle with deferring food waste, especially pre-consumer food waste, from landfills.

Here are 3 astounding figures:

• USDA says that a quarter of the country's food is thrown in the garbage annually.
• U of AZ says that when considering just 3 industry's, supermarkets, c-stores, and restaurants, 27 million tons of food is thrown away annually.
• According to the EPA, as food biodegrades it releases methane, a GHG that is 20 x's more damaging to the environment than CO2.

I throw out these figures because my intentions are to work with the food industry, more specifically the retail food industry, in decreasing and eventually eliminating their food waste to landfills.

Thursday evening I attended the book signing of Diet for a Hot Planet, by Anna Lappe, the daughter of well known Frances Moore Lappe. Anna's suggestions, though geared for consumers, are applicable to the food industry as well, as she addresses packaging, buying local, cooking from scratch or 'reclaiming your kitchen', and finally, 'do your own personal-waste inventory'.

She talks about COOL, Compostable Organics Out of Landfills by 2012; www.coolfoodscampaign.com. This is a Project of the Center for Food Safety to educate the public about food choices and what they can do to reduce food going into landfills.

There has never been a more important time for Californians and the nation to address something so rudimentary as diverting supermarket pre-consumer waste from landfills to composting. I spoke with someone from the EPA on Friday who said that there are 'just not enough waste haulers to pick up organic waste from supermarkets and compost it'. Translation...it is easier for supermarkets to contract waste haulers for the total than to use two separate haulers for their waste.

Thank you reading. I encourage your comments and feedback.

Next week: A recap from the 25th Annual BioCycle Conference