The Beat Waste Startup Challenge
COMPOST TAHOE – TRASH TO FOOD WITH ALTITUDE
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composttahoe · May 28, 2010
Compost Tahoe’s first phase is recruiting and training restaurants in the Lake Tahoe region in food waste diversion techniques and organizing transport to a nearby commercial composting operation. Later, we’ll sell the compost we produce and support community gardens, which (will) grow nutritious, organic produce year-round for local restaurants, schools and farmers markets.
By diverting nitrogen-rich food waste from landfills, where it produces methane, Compost Tahoe instead creates premium, nutrient-dense compost while reducing solid waste, miles driven, and water usage. With 3 million visitors annually to Lake Tahoe, our program will reach an international mix of people. Compost Tahoe’s difference is our intention to create composting and growing systems that allow for a year-round upcycling operation, despite the harsh alpine environment. If it’ll grow here … it’ll work anywhere.
Our plan will establish a permanent food waste collection service for the whole region, then focus on promoting compost sales and local food growing techniques. We are developing a mix of funding from grants, private sponsorships, compost sales, and collection services. Our team members bring together decades of experience in engineering, microbiology, soil agronomy, farming, business, waste reduction, recycling, food service, media and environmental advocacy.
33 comments in the discussion
docmonowritten 2 months ago
I want to thank each and every one of you who have taken the time to sign up and vote for us. If you have not yet had the chance to share this with your firends and family...it's now or never. I know that some of you have experienced hurdles in the process but you persisted until your vote was tallied. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! While it's easy to get discouraged by the fact that we have practically no chance of making it into the top 7 to advance to the finals, I'm heartened by the fact that there are several enteries that have recognized the enormous waste and GHG reduction potential of food waste diversion and composting. Two of them, No Good Food Wasted and Dirt Hugger, are in the top 7. I would encourage you to make sure they stay there, especially Dirt Hugger which is currently holding at #7, by giving them your vote. As if to underscore the importance of this movement, please cut n paste into your browser the attached link or Google to review the latest report by the National Research Council on the growth and importance of sustainable, local foods programs. Again, thanks for your support and check our website at: www.composttahoe.org for updates on our ongoing programs. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/30/MNUQ1E6MIP.DTL Tom Wendell for Compost Tahoe
nctahoewritten 2 months ago
Great idea. Maybe one of the local chambers will send out an e-blast to garner more votes! This is a winner!
tomfinn2010written 2 months ago
Great idea! Good luck guys!
docmonowritten 2 months ago
That's very deep Jane... Thanks sooooo much for the support! Please spread the word as we are far from being in the top 7 to automatically move on to the finals. There are 3 wild card spots but we don't want to hang our hopes on that! Thanks again. Tom Wendell for Compost Tahoe
Jane Byrdwritten 2 months ago
There ya go. Job number one: being born, breathing, feeding, growing, reproducing, dying, and creating soil. Re-creating the conditions for life as we live. Eternity in a closed-loop system. Thank you for Composting Tahoe!!! Without the self-sufficiency of local closed-loop relations to life processes there is no hope for political or social liberties.
emerschwritten 2 months ago
I agree with DHANSEN: Lake Tahoe should show leadership in sustainability. Great job to all. Eric
docmonowritten 3 months ago
Bubbliebappie, thanks for your interest. Yes, the food service establishments pay for their food scraps and other compostables to be picked up just as they did when it was being treated as regular MSW (municipal solid waste). The difference is now, instead of going to a landfill where it creates the potent GHG, methane, it goes to a commercial composting facility. Our pilot program currently focuses on larger waste generators as the scale of their operations both insure getting enough material to fill a truck on regularly scheduled pick-up days and they realize a cost saving or cost neutral situation due to their large scale. This makes our pilot program more efficient to implement and provides the metrics needed to expand the program to smaller generators. Once the 'flow' of compostables increases, so does the efficiency and costs can come down below what the smaller operations were paying for regular 'trash' pick-up which is a fairly fixed cost (fluctuations are due to seasonal visitation). As we make enough compost to fill the trucks on their return trip instead of deadheading as they've always done with regular trash service, we will sell that compost to local nurseries and community gardens (some will be in hi-tech greenhouses growing produce year-round even here and if we can do it here....it'll work anywhere). That food will then be sold back to the restaurants, farmers markets or go directly to school cafeterias as local schools already are starting gardens. Everyone wins. The program is, at worst, cost neutral for the waste generators, landfill space is saved, GHG emissions greatly reduced, the 'waste' comes back as nutrient rich soil to grow organic produce in and schools, restaurants, visitors and locals have access to fresh, healthful produce that was not trucked in from afar further reducing GHG emissions. Procedes from compost and food sales along with any other funding we get will be used to produce educational toolkits to train food service staff on how to efficiently separate compostables, greenhouses, clean fuel vehicles and to site another composting facility to reduce VMT from North Shore locations to further increase efficiency. Having our local waste management company (South Tahoe Refuse) be part of the equation is key as they already have the necessary infrastructure to pick-up and haul the compostables. This also makes it replicatable as virtually all jurisdictions have contracts with private waste management companys.
bubbliebappiewritten 3 months ago
Hi there! I really like your idea, and definitely hope composting spreads through volunteers like you! Does it cost the retailers any money to have their compostables picked up? If not, where do you get your money to be sustainable? Are the crops you sell enough to cover the costs of the composting/transportation? Thanks!
emeraldwritten 3 months ago
Hello: I am a 'Team' member of Compost Tahoe, wanting to make a couple of comments, first to KevinPiersonandson: essentially, that is the core of sustainability:'working with nature is easier than working against it' (!) and you are to be commended for distilling that down to its' fundamental basis !! Secondly, lwang asked some specific questions about 'incentivizing' participation, which I thought required better thoughts about that, as that is very difficult to do given the current budget dilemmas in the U.S. Government at any level is not the target, as they are not the ones who have food waste to divert into something more productive in their community - but if it is of benefit to their constituency at all levels, then they should of course be all for it at all levels. The payoff, not only for those community members who would like to actively renew their connection with nature (now lost) by 'getting their hands dirty', is really in the health and wellness arena overall. This arena is devoid of anything partisan, but is about 'raising the bar' for either those who want to learn not to rely so much health-wise on 'pharmaceuticals', or restaurateurs who want to elevate their menu offerings by an equitable trade for that disposed of with that of better quality produce than they can buy anyway. We are located hundreds of miles from appropriate produce suppliers, so between transport soaking up all the nutrition while increasing the amount of fossil fuel to get it here, we get charged way more for considerably less value - a simple equation of supply and demand, done unsustainably. If, for example, the price of a pound of tomatoes includes at least 50% transport costs in its' price at the checkstand, then that 50% may be better placed by either increasing the nutritional quality or be better spent for things that the community needs, particularly at a time when municipal budgets will not be able to do things that they might like to do for the populace, but don't think they can afford. In this scenario, a visitor-based economy should not have any 'resistance' to bettering anything about the visitor experience, especially since they are to get a much better product than they can otherwise get, and perhaps 'write-off' some portion of this shift in operation. In short, they only need minimal reorientation to realize higher quality, less cost, and a stronger community in which to do business. That is what is known as a Win/Win of the highest order, especially absent any Madison Avenue marketing influence, meaning that each of our participants can realize much higher civic pride at no additional cost to them - in fact, quite the opposite: Great returns for less expense !! In these conditions, why wouldn't they want to participate (?) The technical parts of your concern with composting are answered in the logistics of 'food': either as 'raw material' or in 'cold storage', food is considered perishable, therefore subject to sanitation issues that do not bedevil processed (i.e., boxed or packaged) foods, so the timing of both diverting food waste and delivering produce become entwined in "freshness" . . . Think of the (true) definition of gourmet: the fresher it is from the soil, the quicker it gets to the kitchen, then to the plate, the better received it will be...by taste, by color, and by nutrition. And now, a much better economic equation ! With the correct metrics from our Pilot Project, any further 'numbers' can be refinements to further streamline the process for our partners on either side of the program, as we can then perfect the value proposition for all. . . making happier and healthier people all around . . .from now on !! Thanks for your thoughts...I hope these helped.
Victorwritten 3 months ago
I think that this is a great idea. I am going to tell my friends. Best wishes to you, Victor S.