Composting: New Life for Leftovers

Reduce food waste by composting leftover food scraps, then use the dirt for your garden. Photos by Lexi Mire.

Composting leftover food scraps helps reduce trash in the landfill and creates nutrient-rich soil.

Think those extra bits of food you leave on your plate at a restaurant, or those slightly blemished veggies you toss from your fridge don't have an impact on the environment? Think again.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, food waste that goes to landfills breaks down anaerobically and produces methane, which is 21 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas, and in the U.S., it's becoming a significant ecological problem. Additionally, wasted food is an economic concern. In the restaurant world, reducing food waste is a priority, given its impact on profitability and the bottom line. Yet even those eateries which plan menus based on total utilization (that is, using every part of an ingredient, such as carrots and carrot tops) deal with the reality of foodscraps and unused surplus heading to the landfill.

Such was the situation Tiffany Bess found when she started work managing a local restaurant in 2014. Having assessed their operations over time, Bess took steps to change their practices and pursued alternative ways to deal with scraps. When initial searches for an organic waste recycler proved futile, Bess launched her own in-house composting initiative. A few years later, her passion propelled her into a full-time business pursuit.

As the owner of Apple Rabbit Compost, Bess collects food scraps for a small but growing number of residential and commercial customers. Throughout Northeast Florida, efforts to compost and help reduce waste are largely independent initiatives, as there is no policy mandating reduction of food going into landfills — for now. Some advocates say they believe the region shows promise for more widespread progress.

“The missed opportunities to divert food from landfills is something to be concerned about,” says Laureen Husband, who works with Feeding Northeast Florida and is a member of the Duval County Food Policy Council. “We are looking to identify opportunities for small farms, businesses and individuals like you and me to prevent food from being discarded into a landfill and otherwise use it to replenish the earth to make more healthy food.”

Composting is a natural way of recycling organic matter, and often includes grass clippings, coffee grounds and leftover vegetable scraps. The result is a nutrient rich, dark soil amendment with myriad benefits. It promotes soil microbes that aid plant growth, helps balance the soil’s pH level, reduces pests and otherwise fosters a more sustainable ecosystem.

Husband, who has spent years working in the community health sector in Northeast Florida, says she is not aware of any government-led initiatives to divert food scraps from landfills in any of NortheastFlorida’s counties.

Joseph England, chair of the policy and issues committee for the Florida Food Policy Council, said many local-level composting efforts operate outside of state regulations. Currently, food is characterized as solid waste by state statute; therefore, anyone transporting food waste — even small composting efforts — is required to be certified as a solid waste hauler by the state.

Even if official changes are made at the state level, Florida still lacks facilities that can process food, either though composting or anaerobic digestion, England said. The lack of infrastructure and widespread public support haven’t deterred many Northeast Florida food-related businesses from cultivating their own ingenuity.