Good on you for doing this. I am by no means a fanatical tree hugger guy but I compost for my own garden and hating seeing simple things like food waste go to waste. In addition to more food services participating I wish there were more collectors willing to compost. Where I live there are few; I wish there were because I would buy it. I need more than I came make
Thankyou, From experience I can also say we saved a ton of money on silverware, small dishes, and kitchen utensils that are recovered when checking the separation of the trash.
I think a key to this is to convince a business that this is a symbiotic relationship. It would probably be a good idea to first address this with a restaurant who already buys from you. If they know it will be used to produce things that benefit them there is more incentive. Also, many places pay for waste disposal by the pound on top of a fee. If you can show them the savings for some free pick up that is good. Some free produce may work too :)
It would've great to see the resulting compost: What quality, and did you use worms? I feel like we need professional cooks AND professional composters to collaborate together. It takes time to make a good compost too. But still a good step forward.
You guys should look at what Minnesota has been up to in the food waste recycling. Back in the early 90's I lived and worked in MN and several of the kitchens I worked in recycled weekly and/or daily. They recycled paper/cardboard waste, glass beverage waste, food waste, the lot. Recycling seems to be following me around too because here in Colorado the catering business I work for now has been recycling all of the above + used fryer oil for years. Frankly, if your a food business and/or municipality & you're not recycling, you're so far behind the times you might as well be living in the stone age.
We just have to get past the idea that anything is trash. Nothing is trash. Everything can be used again. The only question is: How do we monetize it; because deriving a profit from it's reuse is the greatest incentive to reuse it. In this case someone found a way of creating a profit by privatizing the composting process that every municipal waste collection service employs and eventually sells.
I strongly disagree. I don't believe the only way to make something successful is if someone can make money off of it. I live on lack of expense more than income, so here's an idea. What if local farmers collected compost from restaurants to correct soil depletion, resulting in healthier produce to be sold to the very same restaurants?
***** That's a good idea but what will make the farmers want to spend time, gas, effort and money going from restaurant by restaurant? It's not practical
As far as fuel, I've already switched one of my cars to veggie oil. So collecting the veggie oil at the same time I collect the compost is one incentive. I already collect waste and reuse it. It definitely can be practical. I'm an Anti-Capitalist and I reject the idea that something will only work if it can be scaled up and profitized. But I agree with your comment that nothing is trash. Everything can be reused or made into something else.
No agenda. And make a living, why can't we just...live? I hate the idea that if someone doesn't agree with the status quo, they must have some secret "agenda." I hate that if someone comes up with a way to conserve, it's "impractical" or "unprofitable." We've devised a complicated system of human exchanges that keeps everyone at the mercy of their possessions. My philosophy in life is to lessen my dependence on that system by making as much of the things I need as possible. Where that is not possible, I at least insist that whatever I consume or produce can be reused or recycled and that it is the highest quality and is not a victim of planned obsolescence.
