Composting is the oldest and most recognized solution for disposing of food scraps and other organic waste. It can be as simple as tossing food scraps and other organic waste out the back door to decompose. However, for a business, a lack of strategy can open organizations up to unexpected problems. With a clear strategy, businesses in more urban areas can benefit from composting as an alternative to sending food waste to the landfill.
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Here we will outline how some of the several forms of composting works, when this solution works best, and some of the potential drawbacks you may face in composting your food scraps. With a better understanding of how composting works, you can make a more strategic decision as to how best dispose of your food scraps without sending them to the landfill.
Composting is the disposal of food scraps, leaves, grass clippings and other organic waste in a process that mimics natural decomposition through the use of oxygen, bacteria, and microorganisms. In general, compost piles and bins require some level of maintenance, including watering and regular aeration through turning, to provide the appropriate conditions for decomposition.
[As an aside, there are industrial products on the market that are called composters. These are generally machines that use large amounts of energy to dry, or dehydrate, your food waste. These machines generally do not compost the material and are not discussed in this article.]There are several forms of composting:
Organizations that do not have room onsite for composting can also work with an offsite hauler. Offsite composting organizations are becoming more common, particularly in areas that are limiting or banning the disposal of food scraps at landfills. While there are no true cost savings with this strategy, it can benefit the planet and some organizations may find it necessary to meet local ordinances or corporate sustainability goals.
Many organizations first turn to composting to lower their carbon footprint by removing food waste from landfills. When food scraps are sent to the landfill, they decompose in an anaerobic (without oxygen) process that emits methane gas, an ozone-damaging by-product. Composting plays a critical role in reducing this damage.
On an individual-level, the beauty of composting for many organizations is that it can be relatively cost-effective to get started. For some, it’s as simple as finding an unobtrusive space in which to dump food scraps or other organic waste. Others might opt to invest in a simple container, either a wooden holding area or a more fully sealed vessel that limits the entry of pests.
Yet another benefit of composting is the nutrient-rich fertilizer that the process produces. Using composting on your landscape is a cost-effective strategy for enriching the soil without the use of chemical fertilizers.
While it is fairly simple to start composting, it is best done by organizations that have the manpower, space, and time to maintain it. It does take work to ensure the right balance of nutrients and feedstock, and to maintain the necessary moisture content, oxygen levels, and temperature. What’s more, this work takes time. Reaping the fertilization benefits of compost doesn’t happen right away. Composting may be ready for use as fertilizer in as little as two months or as long as two years.
There are additional drawbacks to consider. While composting in a container can limit smells, many compositing strategies can release odors and can attract all manner of pests. Because of this risk, the use of certain food scraps (particularly meat) may not be permissible in your preferred form of composting.
In addition to odors, most forms of composting produce leachate, or water that has drained through the decomposing materials. In commercial operations, this residue must be collected and treated to prevent contamination of nearby water sources.
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Composting provides a low-cost, high-maintenance approach to disposing of food scraps that will only work for businesses with ample space, time, and manpower. While it is a well-recognized option, it is not always the best option for commercial food operations looking to reduce their carbon footprint without adding to their operational costs.
Fortunately, there are a number of solutions for food waste disposal available today. Many organizations find that onsite biodigesters provide a better option to the inconvenience and labor of composting. As with composting, biodigesters break down food scraps through the use of natural microorganisms in the presence of oxygen. However, biodigesters perform this work in sealed equipment in the kitchen, eliminating odors as well as the hassle of disposing of food scraps outside.
By: Sara Mack, Marketing Manager
We’re big fans of composting. At Compost Crew, our mission is to reduce the amount of organic waste that is being sent to landfills. This being said, we recognize that not all food recycling initiatives are created equal. In the first post in our Sustainability Wars series, we outlined the pros and cons of disposing of organic waste through a garbage disposal system. We’ve noticed companies promoting countertop “composting” machines and wanted to share our thoughts on these devices.
To quickly summarize, countertop “composters” are small machines designed to process your home’s food waste in a matter of a few hours. The machines cost at least a few hundred dollars, and many are still in the development stage.
Let’s first discuss the pros of using a countertop system to process your food waste. These machines do provide a sense of instant gratification and are advertised as eliminating the smell and grime sometimes associated with composting. These manufacturers are trying to perpetuate the myth that compost is dirtier than other trash disposal, which we put to rest in a previous post. Although countertop composting systems might reduce the smells tied to composting, there are many other ways to achieve the same goal.
These tabletop machines on the market are targeted at individuals with a small living space due to the fact that apartment-dwellers are less likely to have room to compost in a backyard pile. Although the small space necessary to operate these machines is a potential plus, many homes already have crowded countertops. What’s more, over time these tabletop machines will produce a large amount of end product, and without a garden there is only so much of this product that the average houseplant is going to be able to tolerate — even in an apartment owned by a plant lover.
This leads to one of our biggest concerns about the countertop systems. The end product can not scientifically be classified as finished compost. When food scraps are processed over time with the necessary balance of heat, moisture, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen, they create a stable, nutrient-rich soil amendment (aka compost) that benefits soil health and plants alike. The countertop systems shred and dehydrate food scraps rather than allowing them to decompose over time with the nutrients necessary to create cured compost. The final product of this type of countertop system is not guaranteed to benefit soils in the same way that compost does. In fact, these small bits of dehydrated scraps may even reconstitute as bits of banana or carrot in your gardens after the next heavy rain!
In addition to the misleading information being circulated by calling these systems composters, they have a much higher price point than existing systems of organics recycling — even when you don’t include the monetary and environmental cost of the energy (and in some cases water) required to operate them! Composting can be free if you have the space to do it at home, or you can pay a modest monthly fee to have your scraps picked up by a company like Compost Crew. The cost of the countertop option makes it much less accessible to the general public, and doesn’t necessarily provide an easy way for beginners to get started.
Although many of these devices are still in development, countertop composters should be approached with caution due to their potential to contribute to the electronic waste problem we already are dealing with, their high price point, and the available options to recycle organic waste using more sustainable and cost-effective composting methods. If you’re set on purchasing a countertop system to further reduce smell in your space, consider allowing the end product to fully compost via other means before putting it to use in your houseplants or garden.
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