In Business, November-December, Vol. 29, No. 6, p. 16

Oregon Middle School provides a working model to recover food residuals showing what can be accomplished and how.

Shara Anslow

The Portland, Oregon metropolitan area generates an estimated 280,000 tons per year of organic residuals - comprised of plants, food and food-soiled paper. To reclaim this material, the City of Portland Office of Sustainable Development launched the “Portland Composts” program. Since the inception of the program in 2005, Portland Composts has recruited over 250 participants and this year will capture a projected 12,000 tons of organics for recycling. Thus far, this industrial organics waste composting endeavor has not been financially self-supporting. However, validated by a broad community recycling ethic and substantiated by local governmental commitment, a potentially sustainable system for composting organics is in place.

The resource cycling stream in this system consists of: Waste-generating institution; Independent waste hauler; Portland Metro Transfer (& Allied Waste Management); Cedar Grove Composting; and Usable compost

The program serves many institutions - from large, e.g., Oregon Health and Science University, to small, e.g., coffee shops - all working to change how garbage leaves their facilities. This article describes how Alice Ott Middle School partners with Portland Composts to create a composting system in their school.

Natalie Osborn, principal at Alice Ott, embraced composting with the perspective of educating students and staff about the responsibility to “live green.” Upon meeting Osborn, I was assured that the school's ultimate experience with the program would depend on institutional support above and beyond the school.

Andy Schneider, program coordinator of Portland Composts, offered a broad view of how institutions, e.g., Alice Ott Middle School, succeed in implementing refuse management system changes. According to Schneider, Alice Ott's program success depends upon:

• School principal (i.e., manager) buy-in, “with a smile!” Osborn has personal interest and drive to create an atmosphere where environmental issues are in the forefront. The methods and tactics enlisted to promote, establish and manage the composting program reflect her dynamic commitment.
• Establishment and training of an effective Green Team to educate and monitor students in processing lunch leftovers. Currently, at Alice Ott, teachers and staff make up the Green Team. However, Osborn is endeavoring to promote a different image to her student body. She feels that if the Green Team were “cool” she could begin to rely upon student leaders to role-model, educate and monitor the food waste disposal lines in the cafeteria. Meanwhile, until she has recruited sufficient parents and students for the Green Team, she has allocated staff. Since Osborn initiated the program in January 2007, she has used an enthusiastic, problem-solving staff to establish the atmosphere and habits supportive of a sustainable recycling program.
• Point of entry visuals for recyclers. This includes clear signage and adherence to container color (green for composting, blue for recycling). Portland Compost's Schneider has also altered the lids of containers to help distinguish recycling from food residuals. As a home-garage project, Schneider has cut half-circle openings in the lids of food waste bins. This visual reinforcer helps keep students from putting nonfood contaminants into food waste receptacles.
• Confront problems immediately. For example, Osborn spoke about how she resolved a metal contaminants problem. Students were accidentally dropping forks into food compostables bins. She consulted with school maintenance, which produced a powerful magnet attached to a rod. Now, when students drop forks into the bins, they alert staff, who employ the magnet to fish out the forks. Schneider noted that with larger groups composting, the probability of contaminants increases.

AN ASIDE ON DURABLE GOODS
When assessing the school waste, Osborn was struck by how many sporks (plastic spoon-forks) the school used each day. Garbage cans were burdened with over 700 sporks at lunch. Consulting with kitchen staff, Osborn decided to buy metal forks. With the increased prevalence of single-use eating ware, many school kitchens have phased out dishwashers. Fortunately, Alice Ott Middle School kitchen retains theirs.

Osborn used the forks as a tracking system for responsible cafeteria processing. She asked students to be careful, keeping the composting containers contaminant free by not dropping forks in with their residuals. Forks were counted at the end of the month. Osborn set goals and reported the results to her students. She rewarded them with locker stickers for being a Good Green School. According to Osborn, “Kids get it. We model composting and recycling and they understand the need to control garbage.”

My conversations with Schneider and Osborn made this point clear: leadership ecoethics for reducing landfill waste and the enthusiasm for system and behavioral changes are determining factors in school program participation. One person can make the difference. Portland Public Schools (PPS) piloted Portland Composts and did not have the same success that Osborn reports.

DEPENDENCE UPON LARGER SYSTEM SUPPORT
Portland Public Schools found a significant benefit to reclaiming edible food waste. (See: BioCycle article, “Diverted School Food Feeds the Hungry in the August, 2006 issue, access at: www.jgpress.com/archives/_free/001048.html

However, they did not have positive results when they attempted to reclaim postconsumer food waste. PPS piloted Portland Composts for three months in 35 of their 85 schools. From this test, PPS determined the cost to implement the program to be prohibitive. The conclusion of the Organics Collection Pilot Project report states: “It is particularly frustrating that grant money exists for participating customer infrastructure improvements but the parameters specifically exclude biobags.”

Osborn reports that the biobags used in composting cost 20-40 cents more per bag. She feels that in the interest of teaching students, spending the extra money is “the right thing to do.” Osborn's school composting system has been in progress for nearly a year and according to the kitchen and maintenance staff “the program is doable” and a “great way to teach the kids to be environmentally responsible.”

Adopters of institutional organics waste composting remind me that a bottom-line orientation does not inherently provide the mentality or motivation for innovation. A work ethic - which includes ecological sensitivity - will fuel dedication to supportive systemic change.

Penny Erickson, site manager for Portland METRO Transfer, presented this vision of the development of the composting program: The role of government is to facilitate innovative systems to solve social / environmental problems. The goal of this program is to create a viable infrastructure designed to resolve a piece of the solid waste disposal problem. In the future, this system will be operated by the private sector. In the interim, organic waste composting will be subsidized.

METRO TRANSFER STATION AND ALLIED WASTE MANAGEMENT
Metro contracts with Allied Waste Management, a national corporation, for the operation of the 61st Street METRO transfer station in Portland. Allied is a system participant for all types of waste transfer. Organic waste is delivered to the station and inspected by staff. Bob Brandenburg, an Allied employee, walked me through the warehouse where organic waste is dumped, inspected and loaded for shipment. He has worked at the station since the composting program started and is impressed with the amount of material institutions sequester for recycling. Bob also noticed an increase in the quality of material folks are delivering. He feels that people “get the idea.”

Cedar Grove Composting picks up the organic waste for processing at their Maple Valley, Washington plant, which is 160 miles from the METRO transfer site. Cedar Grove hauls 26 tons of waste per truck 11 to 13 times a week. The number of miles organic waste travels for processing is about the same number of miles unreclaimed waste travels to the Arlington landfill in eastern Oregon.

Cedar Grove is actively looking for property to build a composting facility in the Portland area. A feasible facility will require at least 20 acres to process up to 800,000 tons per year of organics. DEQ restrictions and NIMBY obstruction are delaying the purchase of land.

ORGANIC WASTE PICKUP
Portland area waste haulers are independent contractors. There are no set franchise fees for hauling waste. The tipping fee haulers pay for disposing organics at METRO is $47.50 per ton (compared to landfill refuse at $71.00 per ton). The hauling fee charged to clients varies. Several factors influence the fees charged. If clients produce contaminated waste, haulers often pay the higher tipping fee. Organic waste pickup sites are scattered throughout the city. To collect a full load, routes are often longer, which increases operating expenses.

Both Penny Erickson and Andy Schneider talked about the independent hauler system in terms of information sharing. Erickson stated that METRO operates as a regulator for haulers. Within this system of waste generator to hauler to METRO, information could be shared to improve institutional success rates with organics composting.

With an increase in participants, Schneider has started to rely on email and phone calls for follow up with composting organizations. He simply does not have time for many repeat site checks. If haulers provided Schneider with feedback about how program participants were doing, he could increase targeted outreach for problem-solving. However, the established “regulatory” relationship prevents the easy development of cooperative information-sharing.
As in any effort to convert resource exploitation from linear to loop, sustainable organics composting depends upon committed personnel, professional networking and cooperative individual relationships, in order to achieve competitive financial self-sufficiency.

Shara Anslow is employed as a Nutrition Educator in the Oregon State University Extension Service and is currently enrolled in a graduate program of the Communication Department at Portland State University.

MICHIGAN SCHOOL GETS SOLAR POWERED WORM BIN
The Woodcreek Math, Science and Engineering Magnet School in Lansing, Michigan has been using worms to compost food waste for several years, but the winters have proved too harsh for the helpful wrigglers. In the winter of 2005, some shocked fifth graders discovered their worms frozen to death. As reported in the Lansing State Journal: “It caused a trauma because all the students thought of the worms as their pets,” said Diane Graham, an engineering and science specialist at the school.

The idea for a solar-heated worm bin originally came from Woodcreek students during a science lesson on renewable energy. The design came from four seniors at Michigan State University, and Urban Options, a nonprofit. Urban Options, which provides energy and environmental informational services, was awarded $6,000 through a Community Energy Project grant from the state to develop the solar-heated worm bin. The MSU students placed solar panels on the roof of Woodcreek Academy to collect energy to heat air, which is then sent through insulated ductwork using a photovoltaic powered fan, which enter the worm bin. The worms have already composted nearly 400 lbs of lunch waste this year, for use in the school gardens and for sale as a fundraiser.

Urban Options has provided composting information and services since its founding in 1978. “For the past 11 years we have been subcontracted by the Solid Waste Reduction Services Division of the City of Lansing to provide compost education (specifically worm composting) to elementary school children in the Lansing School District,” explains Jim Meyerle, Education Manager at Urban Options. He continues that composting is an important partof the organization's mission: to encourage efficient use of energy and resources. This includes information requests, an edible forest garden site (that demonstrates efficient use of energy and resources) and community events and workshops (including step- by-step worm bin setups).

Urban Options and the City of Lansing's Waste Reduction Services were awarded the 2007 Outstanding Composting Award from the Michigan Recycling Coalition. For more information, visit: UbanOptions.org, or call (517) 337-0422, ext 2.