Food Waste Diversion Sen$e

May 9, 2017

Its International Compost Awareness Week! Composting can significantly reduce the nation’s waste stream, more than 50% of which is composed of organics—food scraps, brush, and soiled paper.

Adding compost to soil is the best way to add organic matter and create healthy soils. Adding compost to soil enhances plant disease suppression and improves the ability of soil to store nutrients. Heathy soils also protect watersheds by filtering out urban stormwater pollutants by 60–95%.

Compost-enhanced soil improves soil fertility and increases resilience to floods and droughts, by improving soil structure and water retention capacity. Compost converts nitrogen into a more stable and less mobile form, and converts phosphorous into a less soluble form. Adding compost to soil helps sequester carbon; one study found that applying one-half inch of compost to rangeland sequestered the equivalent of 1 metric ton of CO2e/hectare over three years.

Compost Economics

According to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, just making compost employs twice as many workers as landfills, and four times as many as incinerators on a per-ton basis. Using compost for green infrastructure, including rain gardens, green roofs, vegetated retaining walls, and on highway embankments, not only serves to control soil erosion and helps improve storm water management; it creates even more jobs and presents municipalities with a cost-effective approach to storm water management.

A recent report issued by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) found that the state’s Commercial Food Waste Ban (implemented in 2014) has created more than 900 jobs and stimulated $175 million in economic activity in the state during the first two years of the ban. The ban requires any commercial establishment that disposes of one ton or more a week of food waste to divert it from disposal through reduction, recovery/donation, and/or collecting it for diversion to animal feed, composting, or anaerobic digestion. Approximately 1,700 facilities, including restaurants, hotels and conference centers, universities, supermarkets and food processors are covered under the ban.

The economic study was conducted by ICF International of Cambridge. The study compared jobs and economic activity among food waste haulers; composting, anaerobic digestion, and animal feed operations; and food rescue organizations before and after the October 1, 2014 implementation of the commercial organics waste ban. According to the report, the ban creates jobs by driving a market for alternatives to the disposal of food waste in the trash.

ICF conducted a survey of 98 organic waste hauling, processing and food rescue organizations; it used an input-output model economic model (“IMPLAN”) to calculate the indirect and induced impacts associated with food waste industry activity in Massachusetts; and the firm interviewed nine representative organizations to gauge challenges, opportunities, and impacts of the ban.

The study shows that food waste haulers and processors, as well as food rescue organizations, employ 500 people directly, while supporting more than 900 jobs when accounting for indirect and induced effects. These two sectors generate more than $46 million of labor income and $175 million in economic activity in Massachusetts.

In addition to these significant economic benefits, the ban has substantially reduced the amount of organics being disposed in the state. Around the state, haulers are now collecting some 270,000 tons of food materials annually—up from baseline estimate of 100,000 tons of food waste diversion prior to implementation of the waste ban. According to the study, jobs in this sector grew by 150 percent between 2010 and 2015, and these businesses project an additional 50 percent job growth from 2016 to 2017.

Additionally, food scrap haulers and processors are planning significant additional growth in facility and equipment expenditures, with more than $70 million in additional expenditures planned for 2016 and 2017.

In Massachusetts, there are now 39 operations accepting food scraps, including four farm –based food to animal operations; 31 food scrap composting facilities; and four anaerobic digestion operations.

In another report, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) announced an anticipated benefit of up to $22 million annually, including reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, if large generators of food waste donate edible food and send food scraps to organic recycling centers.

The report estimates that the current cost associated with hauling, tipping (dumping), greenhouse gases and the damages from disposing of food wastes from large producers is approximately $41 million annually. Alternatively, if the number of food waste recycling facilities was expanded around the state, it could reduce those costs by $15 million to $22 million a year. According to the report, large food waste generators could save $3 million on hauling and $5.3-$9.9 million on tipping costs, for a total of $8.3 – $12.9 million in savings.
 
By Athena Lee Bradley

Catch The Compost Story—a new video the new video from the creators of “The Soil Story.”