Composting in Commercial Cafeterias

Here is a system that might help http://www.quickcompost.co.uk/

And here's the link that I forgot to include: http://www.stopwaste.org/docs/compost_at_work.pdf

Lawrence S. Grodeska

Internet Communications Coordinator
SF Environment City and County of San Francisco
11 Grove St. SF, CA 94102
Direct: (415) 355-3733
http://www.SFEnvironment.org

MaryEllen,

StopWaste.Org has a great brochure titled "Compost at Work" which compresses many years of experience setting up office composting programs into a step-by-step system covering all the basics and common mistakes. I'm not sure it covers larger scale programs like cafeterias, but it is definitely worth a quick read. I do know of a few folks that have set up such programs with great success in the Bay Area, so please message me off-list if interested.

Lawrence S. Grodeska

Hi MaryEllen,

WA State Dept. of Ecology's manual "Managing Food Scraps at Institutions and Agencies" is one of the composting resources located at: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/swfa/compost/

Michelle Andrews

(360) 407-6113
[email protected]
Dept of Ecology
P.O. Box 47600
Olympia WA 98504-7600

I have been doing research on a system that would handle kitchen and dining room waste for one of our correctional facilities. Perhaps you will find this article interesting, and you might be able to see Mr. Smith-Sebasto's system. http://www.montclair.edu/news/article.php?ArticleID=1661

Thanks,
Mary 

Hi MaryEllen.

In Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), Nova Scotia, residents are provided organic carts that are picked up by the municipality biweekly. HRM's waste resource management system requires that all commercial establishments, including restaurants, provide source separation for waste, recyclable containers, paper, and organics. There are a lot of food establishments that don't comply, but there has been a lot of improvement. For more information, try this HRM link: http://www.halifax.ca/wrms/ici.html, or try contacting HRM: http://www.halifax.ca/contact.html.

Regards,
Nancy Webber

Coordinator/Program Development
Clean Nova Scotia
902.420.7931
[email protected]
www.clean.ns.ca 

MaryEllen,

A good place to start would be the EPA's website. It has many resources on food waste, including a guide on starting a program in different settings: www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/materials/organics/ food/fd-guide.htm I would also highly recommend checking out BioCycle magazine -- we are a frequently cited source on composting. Some articles are free online (www.biocycle.net), although subscribing gives you full access. Feel free to email me with additional questions.

Rhodes

Rhodes Yepsen,
Associate Editor BioCycle magazine
Advancing Composting, Organics Recycling & Renewable Energy
(610) 967-4135, ext. 27