Businesses gear up for commercial food waste disposal ban

GREENFIELD –The staff at Hope and Olive, a Greenfield restaurant, has been composting the establishment's food waste since the business opened about seven years ago.

“We do this because it makes sense not to put our food waste into a landfill where it is not getting used,” said Jim Zaccara, co-owner. “It’s better to put it in a place for future use (as compost used in landscaping and gardening) rather than in the landfill. Our food waste becomes soil. It makes a lot of sense.”

In January the state announced final commercial food waste disposal ban regulations to take effect on Oct. 1, diverting food waste to energy-generating and composting facilities and reducing the commonwealth’s waste stream.

The solid waste disposal ban applies to businesses and institutions disposing of 1 ton or more of food waste per week. Regulated by the state Department of Environmental Protection, it will require them to donate or re-purpose the usable food. Any remaining food waste will be shipped to an anaerobic digestion facility, where it will be converted to clean energy, or sent to animal-feed operations and composting.

Businesses and institutions are encouraged to reduce the total volume of food waste generated and to donate unused food to soup kitchens, food banks and shelters.

Composting in a well-managed process prevents the creation of methane; there is a significant environmental benefit in greenhouse gas savings by composting.

At Hope and Olive, about 6 yards of combined food waste and cardboard are sent to Martin's Farm Compost and Mulch in Greenfield for composting.

“I think people are gradually becoming more aware of composting, and it is becoming more common than it used to be,” Zaccara said.

According to Lorenzo Macaluso, director of Green Business Services at Center for EcoTechnology in Northampton, about 1,400 businesses and institutions throughout Massachusetts are already contracting with a hauler to take food waste to a processing option like composting. (Some are generating a ton or more of food waster per week, others less.) "That says a lot. It's happening," he said. "A lot more need to do it, that's for sure."

Food and other organic materials make up 25 percent of the current waste stream, making the disposal ban an important component of the strategy by the administration of Gov. Deval Patrick to reduce waste disposal. The ban will help the commonwealth reach its goals to reduce the waste stream by 30 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.

Residential food materials and food waste from small businesses are not included in the ban. The disposal ban affects about 1,700 businesses and institutions, including supermarkets, colleges, universities, hotels, convention centers, hospitals, nursing homes, restaurants and food service and processing companies.

When the announcement of the ban was made, “there was not a lot of grumbling,” Macaluso said, noting that RecyclingWorks Massachusetts has long been helping businesses comply with waste bans.

To continue with the assistance, the Massachusetts Commercial Food Waste Vendor Fair will take place June 12 in Framingham. For more information, go online to recyclingworksma.com/events/massachusetts-commercial-food-waste-vendor-fair. “This would be a great resource for any business or institution to attend and get access to lots of information in one shot,” Macaluso said.

Also, through an innovative partnership between the state Department of Environmental Protection and the Massachusetts Food Association, 300 supermarkets have implemented successful food waste separation programs that save up to $20,000 a year per store location.

Headquartered in Springfield, Big Y is one of the largest independently owned supermarket chains in New England. The family-owned-and-operated business has 61 locations throughout Connecticut and Massachusetts. There are 29 locations composting in Massachusetts, (only two stores are not); 100 percent by the summer, noted Sandy G. Giancola, preventive maintenance manager.

Big Y also is composting in nine Connecticut locations.

“It’s the right thing to do. We have been composting for many years, and it is the way we do business,” Giancola said.

Big Y has been composting since the mid 1990s. On average, the company diverts 2 tons of food waste per week from landfills.

“The employees are really the success of the program,” Giancola said. “They are the ones that make it happen every day.”

Big Y publishes an article for Earth Day in the April coupon book that highlights its recycling/sustainability programs.

Like Big Y, hundreds of businesses and institutions have already taken steps to reduce and divert food waste from disposal into the waste stream. It’s not complicated to compost, Zaccara said.

Hope and Olive has added compost containers next to rubbish barrels, so waste removal receptacles take up more space than rubbish barrels alone. “It’s mildly inconvenient,” Zaccara said, “but the payoff is great.”

For more information go online to recyclingworksma.com/commercial-organics-waste-ban/ or to mass.gov/eea/agencies/massdep/recycle/solid/massachusetts-waste-disposal-bans.html.

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