"Innovations" Case Studies: Food Waste Recovery

Santa Cruz County Provides Seed Money for Private Initiatives Case Study

Santa Cruz County offers grants for waste reduction and recycling projects. In 1997 Karin Grobe of Organic Recyclers Anonymous (ORA) applied for a grant to identify food waste generators in the county and link these with existing end users. This first phase of a now ongoing food recovery effort in the county was a success and led to several more grants.

ORA is now helping camps, schools, and other establishments implement on-site vermi-composting of their food discards. ORA staff work with the Skills Center, a local sheltered workshop, which sells worms, vermicomposting supplies, and “industrial size” 4 by 4-foot worm bins. Mid-scale food waste generators can use these bins. The Skills Center is a nonprofit organization that employs and trains developmentally disabled adults.

The county’s third grant to ORA for $25,000 includes some financial assistance to food waste generators for purchasing on-site composting systems (for example, Earth Tubs or the Skills Center’s industrial worm bins). The county will pay up to half the cost of the equipment and supplies (such as worms and food collection carts).

The county has also given grant money ($19,600) to the Skills Center to help it set up production and marketing for its worm farm. It was through this grant that ORA and the Skills Center gained experience with industrial size bins, which enabled ORA to start on-site food discard management at camps, schools, and other establishments.

The county award program and general county support is helping more food waste generators in the county divert their food discards to businesses that want these materials. In particular, county-supported efforts have targeted and begun diversion of small generators’ materials using innovative approaches such as on-site vermicomposting systems.

Phase 1 of Organic Recyclers Anonymous Project

Under its first county grant of $7,000, ORA gathered information on food discard generators (supermarkets, restaurants, food service institutions) and end users (composters, vermicomposters, animal feeders, animal feed manufacturers, and tallow companies) of pre-consumer food residuals. ORA compiled data through on-site interviews and phone surveys.

ORA developed databases of generators, users, and haulers of pre-consumer food and then matched generators with users whenever possible. ORA’s research identified 23 possible end users, from food banks and farmers to renderers, commercial compost operators, and animal feed manufacturers. ORA provided generators with a database of users and names of haulers so they could make their own matches.

Example: Coast Produce. As result of ORA’s efforts, Coast Produce, a wholesaler of fruits and vegetables, contacted the Skills Center worm farm to arrange for the donation of perishable fruits and vegetables. Coast Produce has 300 customers, including grocery stores, restaurants, and food service businesses. It serves a geographical distribution area approximately 300,000 square miles in size.

Coast Produce first contacts charitable organizations that feed the poor, but they are unable to use all the company’s perishable residuals. The Skills Center worm farm, which uses the fruits and vegetables to feed more than 512,000 worms, picks up slightly more than a half-ton of fruits and vegetables per week from Coast Produce.

Full boxes are loaded onto a pallet and into a Skills Center truck with a forklift. Through the Skills Center pickup, Coast Produce avoids disposal of more than 26 tons per year and saves $3,200 in hauling and disposal fees per year. Other food discards go to charitable organizations and dairy farmers.

The program costs Coast Produce nothing because users collect its food discards free of charge. Coast Produce simply needs to keep food waste separate from non-food waste and load pallets of food waste in boxes into users’ trucks. The company recovers 100 percent of its food discards (2,000 to 3,000 pounds per week, or 52 to 78 tons per year). This represents 43 to 65 percent of the total waste it generates (120 tons per year). Its total waste bill per year is $15,160.

Phases 2 and 3 of Organic Recyclers Anonymous Project

Under a second and third grant from the county ($4,000 and $25,000, respectively), Organic Recyclers Anonymous contacted individual generators. The organization designed food discard diversion systems based on the locations, waste stream, and capabilities of the generators. Where appropriate, ORA staff worked with generators to choose and set up an on-site food diversion system.

As of February 2000, ORA was continuing to match generators with businesses that use food discards as animal feed or compost feedstock. Five sites had already begun implementation of on-site vermicomposting: the Swanton Pacific Ranch (a learning facility), a Montessori School, the Live Oak School, the Redwoods Program/Juvenile Hall, and the YMCA Camp Campbell.

Two of the sites have bought worm bins made by the Skills Center. Two others made their own bins using information from the Skills Center, and one used small commercially available bins.

Phase 3 includes funds to pay for up to half the cost of infrastructure improvements (such as in-vessel composters, vermicomposting bins, and worms) for on-site systems at generators’ sites. The grant also covers technical assistance to businesses adopting on-site composting or vermicomposting. Under phase 3, ORA developed a brochure to explain the diversion project to the business community. ORA distributed it via direct mail, chambers of commerce, and business associations.

Example: YMCA Camp Campbell. The YMCA Camp Campbell is one food waste generator that is now vermicomposting on-site due to ORA’s efforts. The camp, a residential facility and conference center in the Santa Cruz mountains, serves 75,000 meals to 8,000 guests each year. The camp was discarding approximately 400 pounds of kitchen and dining room residual fruit and vegetable waste per month.

The camp purchased four industrial-sized worm bins and 20 pounds of worms from the Skills Center. Worms multiply quickly, so the worm population is expected to weigh 64 pounds by spring 2000. Kitchen and dining staff put all leftover fruit, vegetable, pasta, bread, and coffee grounds into two 50-gallon wheeled carts, which are emptied into the worm bins weekly. Worms convert the food residuals into vermicompost, a valuable soil conditioner.

The camp also incorporates the vermicomposting project into the curriculum of its environmental educational program. Approximately 6,500 young people who visit the camp are introduced to the idea of using worms to transform food scraps into valuable soil conditioner.

The worm castings are used for restoration projects at the camp to remediate the human impact on the natural environment. Restoration projects include native plants that provide food sources for wildlife (one project is a butterfly garden). The environmental education program ties in nicely with Santa Cruz County’s residential recycling, composting, and trash programs.

Waste Management, the county’s franchise hauler, provides vermicomposting bins to residential customers at subsidized prices. Thus, children can learn about vermicomposting at camp and bring the information home to start a worm bin. As the worm population in the bins grows, teachers who bring students to the camp will be furnished with worms to start a classroom worm bin.

Picture of worm bins and campers at YMCA Camp Campbell.

Costs, Economics, and Benefits

Santa Cruz County has awarded $36,000 in grant money to Organic Recyclers Anonymous. The City of Watsonville also gave ORA a grant of $1,000 for phase I of the project. Instead of collecting commercial food waste in this largely rural area, the county provides seed money (via its grants program) to spur food recovery and connect food waste generators with haulers and end users of food. Businesses and institutions that have embraced food recovery (either on-site or off-site) are realizing savings on avoided disposal costs. The efforts of Santa Cruz County and ORA also help sustain the Skills Center worm farm, which is becoming a self-sustaining business for the sheltered workshop.

Challenges and Opportunities in Implementation

The County of Santa Cruz health department, which regularly inspects food service establishments, is concerned that vectors will be a major problem for on-site management of food discards at grocery stores and restaurants. They have, however, tentatively agreed to distribute a brochure on recovering food discards specific to camps and conference centers. (Camps and conference centers can allow more space between food prep or storage area and composting area.) Also, space is limited at grocery stores and restaurants, so space for a composting system typically competes with other space uses (such as parking).

Santa Cruz County has recycling collection programs for its commercial/institutional sector. However, a waste characterization study done in 1999 revealed that food waste makes up 48 percent of restaurant and 33 percent of retail waste streams. ORA’s efforts will help the county to divert this relatively high portion of the commercial waste stream from disposal.

The County’s Role

By awarding grants to Organic Recyclers Anonymous and the Skills Center, the county has acted as a facilitator. (The county allocates about $150,000 per year in waste reduction grants.) The county further facilitated food recovery by mailing a letter on its letterhead from the director of public works to food waste generators in the county. The letter informed businesses about ORA’s project and research, and it included a list of potential food waste users who might benefit by reducing their garbage bills. Local chambers of commerce and the local health department have further helped spread the word about opportunities to divert food waste to valuable end uses.

Table of Contents | Next Section

Last updated: October 26, 2007