This Practice Can be Part of a Recycling Program, But Many Restrictions Apply.

Although this article focused on healthcare (regulated medical waste, preferred purchasing, etc.), they spoke about a Practice Greenhealth study and their efforts to break ‘greening’ down into specific categories.  By doing this it helps the operations to identify the different areas that support and improve the ‘green’ initiatives.

Take a look at your company.  Is sustainability a separate department or part of every department?  Has the responsibility of sustainability fallen on one person as an addition to their ‘regular’ job? The study sites this:

Greening activity is moving beyond grassroots and departmental efforts towards a more coordinated effort and strategy. In fact, 97% of the applicant pool has a green team at their facility and 52% report the activity takes place within the Environment of Care Committee structure. Green teams provide the structure to gather baseline data, set goals, develop metrics, and through a diverse team approach and subcommittees for specific programmatic areas, work together to improve performance.

At LeanPath, we have found that the operations with Green Teams have higher success rates.  More people are involved, there is better ‘buy-in’ from all levels of staff and management, and everyone shares in the success of each accomplishment.  Gathering baseline data and setting goals helps to make everyone aware of the challenges.  We often see shocked faces when we report the actual pounds and dollars of an operations food waste.  The staff knows they aren’t purposely wasting food, but to see the waste in ‘black and white’, printed on a page really brings the challenge into the light.  Setting and achieving goals in a team dynamic also allows you to get many different solutions to one problem.

Another great reason to use a team approach for sustainability is to gather data on the life cycle of a product.  See the example below:

With an increased focus on waste prevention and life cycle analysis, some waste prevention activities are harder to capture. Cleveland Clinic, for example, boasts an over 25% recycling rate, which recently dipped as they conducted life cycle computing and electronics, which reduced the amount of computer “waste” generated altogether. All computers now go back to the manufacturer for refurbish, reuse, and redeployment. So while one may be impressed by hefty recycling rates, waste prevention activities deserve mention and can sometimes get lost in the numbers. This is why total waste generation should be tracked to reflect waste prevention successes.

An important goal for any type of organization: tracking total waste generation to reflect waste prevention successes.  We encourage everyone to work on waste reduction as the first step.  Purchasing less, producing less – leads to less waste.

Practice Greenhealth has just started tracking data this way, but they intend to continue tracking this data.  This long term tracking will help the industry to see how sustainability grows and trends over a long period.   More trend information should be available after the 2010 Environmental Excellence Awards to be presented at CleanMed 2010 in Baltimore Maryland, May 11-13.

Web links:

1. CleanMed: http://www.cleanmed.org
2. Green Guide for Health Care: http://www.gghc.org
3. Global Health and Safety Initiative: http://www.globalhealthsafety.org
4. Health Care Without Harm: http://www.noharm.org
5. Practice Greenhealth: http://www.practicegreenhealth.org
6. The Center for Health Design: http://www.health design.org

Exit the pigs, enter large volumes of decomposing food waste strewn throughout the city.

Is there a lesson for foodservice operators in this story?  I think so.  We, as foodservice and hospitality operators, have become so reliant on municipal and commercial waste management solutions that we take them for granted.  We assume there will always be someone there to accept the food waste we generate.  This may not always be true.

Indeed, there are people and companies who believe food waste will be prevented by regulation from going to landfills in the U.S. within the next decade.  Where will foodservice operators send their food waste then?

The answer is that we will have to be creative and develop source reduction programs (using proven practices such as food waste tracking), donation programs, and waste-to-energy or composting solutions.   In fact, it’s likely our future waste management vendors and partners will look very different from the companies and services we are using today for food waste.

As the Egyptians have learned, discarding food waste in a sanitary manner is not a “right”.   It’s the outcome of careful thought and design.  There has to be a system in place to handle that waste or else you have nothing but a big mess.  

As foodservice operators think about the future, we have a chance to carefully design and envision a world of “zero food waste.”   This doesn’t mean we won’t generate any waste.   However, it does mean that through a combination of source reduction and diversion (i.e. composting, donation), we can send zero food waste to the landfill at the end of the day.  Simply stated, we will have to put all our food waste to its highest and best use.

However, the Swine Health Protection Act (SHPA) was passed by Congress in 1980.  The act regulates any food waste containing meat that is served to swine:

In accordance with the SHPA and Federal regulations, food waste containing meat may only be fed to swine if it has been treated to kill disease organisms.

This means, in most cases, cooking that food waste before serving it.  Perhaps as a result of the extra hurdles created by this legislation, the misconception that donations were banned by the law (they weren’t), or other factors, the practice of food waste donations to feed animals has diminished over time. 

But is still a viable option to donate food to pig farms today and, if so, is that a better thing to do than compost the waste?

The quick answer, based on guidance from the EPA,  is “yes it’s possible and it’s preferable to composting.”   However, you need to have a local farmer that is capable of treating the product in away that fully complies with the SHPA.

Specifically, the EPA includes “feeding animals”  as part of its overall food waste management hierarchy:

EPA Food Waste Management Hierarchy

The EPA also shares this case study.  In Las Vegas, many of the large hotel casinos donate their food waste to RC Farms.  Also, here’s a recent TV news story from Utah about a restaurant owner who not only donates food waste, but actually owns the pigs that eat it!

Keep in mind that “source reduction” and “feeding people” are both higher on the EPA food waste hierarchy than “feeding animals.”  However, “feeding animals” does rank higher than composting or industrial applications (e.g. biodiesel). 

This is something to keep in mind if you have the choice between donating to a local swine operation (that will comply with the SHPA) or putting that food waste into composting or landfill.

Starting this Fall, all residences and businesses will be required to separate food waste for composting.   This is likely to be the direction that many municipalities will pursue in the months and years to come.  

Read about the details in the SF Chronicle.