Cleveland Clinic Launches Composting Project

[keljonma]

Saw this great article on GreenCityBlueLake from July 13, 2009

http://www.gcbl.org/blog/marc-lefkowitz/cleveland-clinic-buys-composting-local-food-project

Composting food waste is the next frontier in recycling, and one of the areas largest institutions is piloting a composting program to lead the way.

AVI Foodservice kitchens in Cleveland Clinics Main Campus started composting in June, transporting food scraps to Cleveland Botanical Garden youth garden sites (pictured). The pilot project is in the Cleveland Clinics Main Campus cafeteria and at several retail food service locations. The Cleveland Botanical Garden (CBG) provided AVI chefs with 10-gallon buckets, which the kitchen crews fill with fruit and vegetable scraps, eggshells, and coffee grounds.

AVI Foodservice District Manager Nathan Cristino estimates that about 12 to 15 full buckets are produced every two days. That is equivalent to nearly 1,000 pounds in one week. The early success will help potentially spread the program to other Cleveland Clinic kitchens. CBG composts the materials and incorporates the finished compost into their five Green Corps urban gardens.

In addition to getting food waste from the Clinic, were also taking it from the West Side Market, Great Lakes Brewing and Case," says CGB staffer Bob Shields. It goes right onto the lasagna beds at the Dunham Tavern site. With lasagna mulching, you dont even need a composter. Lasagna mulching is a simple technique layering food scraps between layers of leaves or cardboard, all of which breaks down in four to six months to produce a nutrient-rich soil.

CBG Green Corps empowers local inner city youth through summer gardening jobs and education about healthy eating. CBG employees brought Green Corps students to explain composting and the programs connection to Green Corps mission.

They realized there is a social and scientific connection to [composting] and it helped them get it, said AVI catering manager Timothy DelPapa.

Green Corps students presented AVI employees with jars of their City Fresh salsa, made from produce grown in their gardens. This helped the chefs understand that their food scraps had a tangible impact. The relationship helped motivate AVI employees.

When they heard it would serve inner city youth, they were excited, said Cristino about his employees reactions. We had those buckets in on Monday and they were filled by Tuesday, added DelPapa.

Composting removes food waste from our landfills and helps close the loop on Cleveland Clinics local food programs by returning food to our soil. Composting also minimizes the need for artificial chemical fertilizers and the energy associated in their production.

Specifically, the food waste from the Clinic builds the soil in the gardens in Fairfax, Slavic Village and Clark-Metro, hard-hit areas where Cleveland kids are cultivating food for their neighbors. This year, were focusing on food for specific neighborhoods, like cilantro and coriander to make sofrito on the Near West Side, Shields says, and selling it directly there (through CityFresh farmers markets).

Food composting is about to take off, predicts Beau Daane of the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District. Cuyahoga County residents, businesses, and industries generate approximately 400,312 tons of food waste every year, while recycling only 2,636 tons of that in 2008.

Daane, Peter McDermott at E4S and others worked with the West Side Market to pilot a food waste composting project for the produce vendors. Tubs will be installed for them to use this fall. The city-owned Rockefeller Greenhouse will accept the partially cured compost, continue the curing process, and ultimately use the finished compost at the greenhouse for soil enrichment.

The next opportunity is to connect smaller businesses to local resources like the CBG. For example, while perusing the menu at Bar Cento in Ohio City recently, we noticed two things: the long list of local farmers from whom meats, dairy and veggies are purchased. And the environmental statement which includes recycling and food waste composting programs.

On a related note, the new documentary film, "Food, Inc." screens tonight at the Cedar-Lee Theatre followed by a panel discussion with local local foods experts.

 

[big brown horse]

That is awesome!

Seattle is also providing a curbside, food composting program to the citizens. It is still in the beginning stages though.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

I wish I didn't live in the land of unchanging people.

The garbage units here pick up "lawn debris" on its own special day, no regular trash is allowed to be on the curb on that day. And then, they take it to the landfill, where it gets dumped in on top of refridgerators & old phone bills... I don't get it... Why even split it up if you're gonna mix it together? Is it just so they can "look" green for the Blues Trail tourists?

Imagine the compost that could be produced???

My trash bag usage has been cut roughly in half since we started composting. That is simply amazing to me, I was throwing away good dirt builders and paying someone to haul it off...