Collectively speaking, we waste a lot of food. According to the USDA, Americans waste between 30-40 percent of the food supply, which equates to over $150 billion each year. The Environmental Protection Agency states that each American tosses out an average of $1,600 of food each year. Aside from these alarming statistics, there is a plethora of widespread impacts that food waste has on our communities, environment and society as a whole. From food insecurity to greenhouse gas emissions to overflowing landfills, the urgency to re-evaluate our food consumption and organic waste has never been more prevalent than it is now.
The truth is, though, that while we can consciously cut down on the amount of food we waste by purchasing less and planning our meals prior to shopping, food waste is in many ways inevitable. There will always be a forgotten potato that finds it way to the back corner of the crisper drawer; there will be banana peels and apple cores; and there will be other ingredients bought with good intentions that somehow got interrupted and ended up spoiling instead. So what’s the most natural and sustainable solution to this inevitable problem? Composting.
While Rochester has yet to introduce a municipally funded or required composting service, the city is fortunate to have a private compost hauler. Community Composting provides an organics collection service to residential and commercial customers in the city of Rochester and select surrounding suburbs. The service works well for anyone, but is particularly helpful to people living in an apartment setting, those with little time to dedicate to a compost pile (it takes more than just tossing your scraps into a pile and hoping for the best!), or those who wish to compost materials that are often taboo in backyard piles, like dairy, meat, bones, seafood and prepared/processed foods. Since the business collects upwards of two to three tons of material weekly and works with Vermi-Green, a large processing center in Palmyra, New York, they are able to accept a wide-range of organics.
Upon signing up online, subscribers receive a four gallon green bin which collects their food scraps and waste. The night before pick up, the bin is placed outside. The next day, Community Composting swaps out their bin with a clean one. The scraps make their way to Vermi-Green where they are mixed with carbonaceous material like hay, sawdust, dried leaves and wood, and routinely turned. From beginning to end, the process of making the compost takes around two to three months. Every Spring, Community Composting customers receive the finished compost in return, completing the cycle. The compost is then used to enrich the soil and grow more food furthering the process of farm to table by leading it right back to the “farm”.
By composting, either through a service or a backyard pile, Rochesterians are taking steps towards building a more sustainable future for the region and providing a positive example of how to generate less waste for their community.
To learn more or to sign up, visit communitycomposting.org.