The Importance of Diverting Food Scraps from the Landfill
Composting is a system that combines food scraps with chipped yard debris to create a nutritious soil amendment. The finished “compost,” when applied to the land, can help store carbon and grow new food. This circular system of resource use has many benefits to the environment and the climate, but before composting, reduce the amount of edible food wasted. Every effort should be made to eat edible food and not waste it. The food scraps from plate scrapings, bits of spoiled food, pits, cores, and peels should all be added to a composting system.
See content about preventing wasted food from Zero Waste Week 2021 and Zero Waste Week 2022.
ZWG talked to Stephan Barron, founder, and owner of Beaten Path composting service in Gainesville, in 2021. See the blog post here.
We’re following up with Stephan to see how the collaborative programs with the City of Gainesville and The Repurpose Project’s Zero Waste Schools Program have affected his business.
ZWG: How has the city’s pilot curbside composting program helped your business grow?
Stephan: The city-sponsored curbside pilot program was a big step for us. In many ways, it showed us what our capacity actually is, gave us the funding to create an actual team and start mobilizing more than just one vehicle, it tied us to more city officials so that we have more of a say and sway in the composting movement, and also got our name out there in a much larger way. I think the biggest help was that it was our first very dense area of participants, and so we were able to see how efficient we really can become when working at a larger yet more tightly knit scale. With the success of that pilot, it has now shifted to an actual city-funded contract, and in April, we will be doubling the participants, if not tripling!
ZWG: What are some of the essential aspects of growing the food scrap curbside collection program over the past 1.5 years that you want to share with us?
Stephan: I think there are more essential aspects than I even realize yet, but what I do know is that community outreach and education are some of the biggest. As our understanding of climate change, and sustainability/resilience increases, more and more people are reaching out, wanting to do their part. So, I think if we put more effort, funding, and care toward intentional education within our schools and community systems, we will see a huge increase in not only compost participants but home composters and people going even further to grow their own food and much more.
ZWG: Are you on track with your five-year goals? Have any plans changed?
Stephan: So far, I feel like I am on track to reach all of my goals, if not more, within the 5-year time frame I discussed 2 years ago. We now have a team of 3, including me, all paid a living wage. By April, or roughly around then, our curbside program will be doubled, if not tripled, we will have a new, more efficient truck, and I will be able to hire a 4th to our team. In the meantime, between then and now, I am meeting with two local farms to discuss contracts for us to compost on their land. This would allow us to more efficiently compost in various parts of town since the farms selected are strategically located closer to where we would be servicing. All the while, we would be able to use the compost we make on-site (which you can't get much more efficient than that!).
Along with that, we are now in close contact with Two Farms One Dream, who will also be possibly expanding into more city contracts! As this all aligns, we hope to find our opportunity to either start creating our "compost academy" on either one of these newly contracted farms, or we will very soon get our own plot of land. Once this falls into place, we will also begin, in earnest, our attempt to start building/creating a regenerative, ecological-based farm.
ZWG: You collaborate with The Repurpose Project’s Zero Waste schools program to divert the student and staff’s post-lunch food scraps. Why is it important for you to collaborate on this program?
Stephan: Collaborating with the Repurpose Project's Zero Waste school program is one of our most rewarding and important connections. As mentioned above, we believe there will be no greater catalyst for the increased communal participation in composting than education. As these kids at school make composting a daily activity, some of them will and have taken that home to teach their family/friends as well. Along with that, when we host field trips for these kids, and they see where the food waste really goes, it seems that they become even more connected to the act of composting and WANT to do it or WANT to share the knowledge with others. So, with this said, not only is it important for our own growth as a business, but it's vastly more important for the simple survival of our species! If we want to continue living on the planet, we need to begin living WITH and within the natural cycles of this planet. So that means more folks need to compost, if not everyone.
ZWG: What do you want the Gainesville community to know about the importance of diverting their food scraps?
Stephan: I want Gainesville to know that by diverting their food scraps, they are not only reducing powerful greenhouse gases such as methane from being released into our atmosphere, but they are also helping to create high-paying, meaningful jobs while simultaneously helping to restore land! When their food scraps are composted with us, we process them in a way that a large portion of the material and nutrients are disbursed in a balanced way into the surrounding landscape to grow more native plants, which supports native biodiversity while sequestering carbon and capturing heat from the sun into living plants. What material we keep and turn into finished compost is then used by local growers to then magnify this by growing even more plants, life, and food for all! I think this is what makes us a unique composting operation is that we use a method that helps restore the land we use.
ZWG: How can residents and businesses sign up and begin diverting their food scraps with you?
Stephan: To sign up and compost with us, all you need to do is go to beatenpathcompost.com and apply in our footer form at the bottom of the page. Once you do this, we will get back to you with your options and rates based on your location. It's that easy, and we offer one of the cheapest services in the nation so that everyone can get access to it!
We also asked Amanda Waddle, Director of Zero Waste, The Repurpose Project, a few questions.
ZWG: Why is it essential to have Beaten Path Compost in Gainesville?
Amanda: It is essential to have Beaten Path Compost in Gainesville because we need the programs and infrastructure that Beaten Path offers to divert our food scraps from the New River Landfill (Gainesville’s landfill materials travel 33 miles north to the New River Landfill in Union County). But more than that, we’re fortunate to have Stephan, who profoundly understands biological processes and closely connects to nature. His foundation in ecology and knowledge of climate change helps him steer the direction of his business. Stephan is great about collaborating on community projects as well. I’m grateful for all the hard work he has put into his business, and I’m glad he’s here in Gainesville.
ZWG: How does Beaten Path Compost collaborate to help Gainesville reach its Zero Waste goals?
City of Gainesville Zero Waste Initiative
Amanda: Stephan has been eager to collaborate on projects that grow his business and grow the awareness around environmental stewardship from day one. He has worked with the City of Gainesville to expand curbside residential service, and he’s worked with me on various projects. These projects test his ability to grow and help develop the practice and exposure of food scrap collection for composting to those who may not know about it.
Stephan was willing to collaborate when I started the Zero Waste program at Resilience Charter School. He set up their weekly food scrap collection system while I taught the staff and students how to divert post-lunch food scraps for collection for composting. He also opened his team and their schedule to having the students visit Grow Hub to see his composting operation. For the past two years, the students at Resilience Charter School have visited Beaten Path Compost at Grow Hub in collaboration with Working Food. The students received a two-hour tour of the facility and learned about seed saving, composting, and the connection of our soil to our food. These sixth, seventh, and eighth graders have had a unique experience thanks to their school’s dedicated staff and the teams at Beaten Path Compost and Working Food. Stephan and I also collaborate with Melissa DeSa from Working Food to do a small portion of the Seed to Soil workshop. This four-hour spring workshop, held at Grow Hub, combines Mel’s expertise in seeds saving and growing plants with my expertise in reducing wasted foods, along with Stephan and his team’s knowledge of turning food scraps into a nutrition soil amendment that will nourish future food growth.
Zero Waste Gainesville and The Repurpose Project are proud that we have community organizations, private businesses, nonprofits, and city and county staff and elected officials that see the value and environmental benefit of working towards Zero Waste. We look forward to fostering these relationships and collaborations for many years as we work towards Zero Waste.
Here’s how you can divert your food scraps to Beaten Path Compost for composting:
Grove Street Farmer’s market – bucket swap
Where: Cypress & Grove Brewery, 1001 NW 4th St, Gainesville, FL
When: Mondays, 4-7 pm
GNV Farmer’s Market - bucket swap
Where: Heartwood, 619 S Main Street, Gainesville, FL
When: Thursdays, 4-7 pm
Drop-off food scraps at either location for free:
Afternoons, 231 NW 10th Ave, Gainesville, FL
4th Avenue food park, 409 SW 4th Ave, Gainesville, FL
Residential Curbside bucket swap - limited area
Commercial businesses can contract with Beaten Path for weekly pickup of food scraps. Contact them at beatenpathcompost@gmail.com.