What's Left Over

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What’s left over

Examining the food waste problem in Columbia and the nationwide efforts to cut it in half Page 6

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OPERA 101

The trash cart debate continues, and this time, it’s headed to the polls

Local experts pull back the curtain on this dramatic art form

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Our wasteful Yogurt sours, bread hardens and fruit rots.

What happens to all that food you throw away?

Written by Meredith McGrath Photos by Zach Baker

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voxmagazine.com | 03.10.16

ways J

eep tires crunch on the gravel road as the vehicle climbs the hill. Thick clumps of trees line the route.

As the vehicle reaches the top, the trees part like stage curtains and showcase acres of sloping, uneven land.

Several utility vehicles move in different directions across the open area. Each tends to a specific task like an ant working for its colony.

Overhead, dozens of turkey vultures circle the perimeter. They soar high, then dip low to perch on the highest plateau.

The Jeep continues up the path before it stops on the hill. The vultures flee. “Here it is — the landfill,” says Nick Paul, Columbia’s former landfill superintendent and current material recovery superintendent.

You might not know that Columbia’s 107-acre landfill lies just 15 minutes north of downtown. You probably do know what’s in it, though. After all, you put it there. Banana peels, apple cores, pieces of crust from the Shakespeare’s

pizza you couldn’t quite finish; it’s all there, along with tons of other wasted food. It’s the stuff that you could have eaten — or better yet, composted — but threw away instead.

And you’re not alone. Americans wasted 133 billion pounds, or nearly one-third, of the 430 billion pounds of food available for consumption in 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s most recent study of national food waste. That translates to an estimated total loss of $161.6 billion for commercial businesses and individual consumers, according to the study.

The USDA reports that food makes up the single largest component of municipal solid waste after some recyclable materials have been removed, and it accounts for 34 percent of human-related methane emissions in the U.S. Landfills are the third largest source of methane in the country, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Methane, the second most prevalent greenhouse gas, is hazardous because it absorbs the sun’s heat and warms the atmosphere, which in turn contributes to climate change.

Now, the USDA and EPA are asking Americans to help cut hazardous methane emissions, conserve natural resources and protect the planet for future generations.

Last September, the agencies announced the first-ever national food waste reduction goal: By the year 2030, they want Americans to reduce their food waste by 50 percent.

As the nation works to bring down the food waste it generates, Columbia is also redirecting and limiting its food waste. Local programs might not be perfect, but the city is working to keep the landfill from growing even higher.

Buried treasure At the top of the hill, the distinct smell of the Jeep’s engine exhaust mixes with rotten odors and enters the vehicle when its doors open. The vast and unexpectedly beautiful view of the city and its treetops stretches for miles. “You know, this is the highest point in Columbia,” Paul says.

Below, on the next plateau, two utility vehicles shovel a mound of garbage to make a compact pile approximately 100 feet wide. The sun’s rays beat down on the hilltop as the landfill workers finish up a day of burying garbage with dirt. This trash pile will soon become another mound of hidden waste among the acres of others at the landfill as if the garbage produced

by Columbia’s residents was never there at all.

At the landfill, south of the compacted piles of unusable waste, sit several rows of dirt mounds called windrows. Each is about 100 feet long and 3 to 4 feet high. A few feet away from the windrows, a U-shaped mulch pile of about the same height acts as a container for a mound of colorful shapes. If you walk closer, amid the swarms of flies and gnats, you’ll see that it’s produce. This is the city’s compost facility.

The produce in these piles comes from the city’s food waste collection program, which began in December 2011. According to the city’s 2015 compost facility report, Columbia collected an average of 31 tons of food per month. That’s about 2,000 pounds per day, and that number is based only on 03.10.16 | voxmagazine.com

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Composting in CoMo through the years Columbia’s food waste collection program started in 2011. Although the amount of food collected fluctuated for the first few years, the city has seen a steady increase in the amount of food waste collected and, as a result, the percentage of its compost made with food waste, since 2013.

Food waste received for composting

Non-food material received for composting

CY = Cubic Yards food waste collection from a limited number of local businesses and schools. Currently, the program focuses on collecting both pre- and post-consumer waste from these establishments. Twenty-one Columbia businesses and schools participate in the program, which the city’s waste minimization team hopes to expand to more businesses and schools in the future.

The food waste the city does collect is far from the only material used to make its compost. In fact, food waste made up just 4.3 percent of the mixture the city produced last year. The rest of the compost is composed of yard waste, cellulose casings (such as those used to make hot dogs and sausages) from local manufacturers, sawdust and untreated drywall. This mixture is ground, deposited into windrows and turned to facilitate decomposition. The finished product is either sold in bulk at the landfill or distributed to local stores such as Hy-Vee and Menards.

Layli Terrill, the city’s former waste minimization supervisor, says the amount of food waste collected has increased since the program started. This is especially positive considering the costs the city avoids by keeping this recovered food out of the landfill.

Dairy products are the quickest to go bad in the fridge or sour if left out for too long. Dairy products accounted for the largest portion of food waste in America in 2010, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture’s study.

917.55 CY 1.7%

60,000 50,000 40,000

80.49 CY 0.2%

204.68 CY 0.5% 924.87 CY 3.6%

30,000 20,000

40,176 CY

53,375 CY 39,170 CY

10,000 0

2011

2012

“That’s more space we have available,” she says. “It makes our landfill last longer, and we’re avoiding the $44 per ton it costs to landfill it.”

Still, the program does not collect food waste from homes. According to the 2015 census, there are approximately 44,378 households in Columbia, and each likely contributes food waste to the city’s landfill.

Collection from residences is more popular in large metropolitan areas such as San Francisco and Seattle.

In both of these cities, residents are required to keep a separate bin specifically for food waste.

Material Recovery Superintendent Paul says although the waste minimization team hopes to collect food waste on a residential level some day, it currently faces major obstacles. The city would need to obtain a new fleet of trucks and motivate Columbia residents to separate food waste from the rest of their garbage.

With 750–800 tons of waste delivered to Columbia’s landfill every day, the city doesn’t currently count how much food waste is mixed in with the trash and buried into a mound. This means the city has no way of knowing how much food is actually being wasted on the household level or how much goes into the landfill that could be composted instead.

The only benefit of all this trash is that Columbia has a bioreactor landfill, which means that it keeps its garbage moist with water to facilitate faster decomposition of organic waste. When the waste reaches the right level of wetness, it releases methane even more quickly than it otherwise would. The city collects the gas from decomposing garbage and uses it to produce electricity.

Before leaving her position in January, Terrill aimed to expand the city’s recovery program by collecting food from more grocery stores and restaurants and adding schools to the city’s client list. She

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2013

25,054 CY

28,478 CY

2014

2015 Source: City of Columbia

Room for growth

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1,266 CY 4.3%

also hoped to see more participation with at-home composting. “We’re supposed to be stewards of the environment,” she says. “Part of sustainability is to leave something better than how you inherited it, so that’s what we want to do for the next generation.”

The city is still looking to fill Terrill’s now-empty position, but the waste minimization team, including Paul, continues to work to expand the commercial program. But persuading new clients to participate in food waste collection isn’t always easy. Some businesses don’t have the space for another collection bin, and others don’t want to put in the effort of separating food from the other garbage. The sorting is an additional step that requires training employees, but participating in the program can reduce trash costs for the businesses, Terrill says.

When a business agrees to participate in the program, the waste minimization team performs a food waste audit for the company and establishes a collection plan. One of the major benefits of the waste audit is that restaurants can visualize what and how much is being wasted, Terrill says. This audit assists them in planning and ordering their food supply in the future. “If you’re throwing away products before you’re able to use them, then it’s easily seen in your cart,” she says. “No one wants to throw food away because that’s money.”

The waste minimization team also promotes residential composting and hosts free workshops to teach residents how to manage their own composts at home. This program started in 1994, and Terrill estimates about 100 people participate in workshops every year.

The city produced a total of 25,979 cubic yards of compost in 2015, but this isn’t the only large-scale operating compost in mid-Missouri. In Fulton, Rana Bains owns Bluebird Composting, an independent organic waste recycling company that collects food waste from businesses around mid-Missouri and turns it into fertilizer.

Bains makes sure that the compost produced is tested and full of the right nutrients for agricultural

Composting 101 Creating compost isn’t just for the pros at the landfill.

With the help of Tricia Woolbright, one of the city’s composting workshop instructors, Vox put together this step-by-step guide to turn leftover food into fertilizer.

Step 1: Find the tools Not much is needed to make compost, Woolbright says.

Any food-safe container with a lid will work as a vessel for the homemade fertilizer (read: don’t put your compost in your old five-gallon bleach bin). Use a shovel or pitchfork to turn the mixture, if you’d like to do so.

Step 2: Collect your materials

ILLUSTRATIONS by Matt hellman; Photo by annie rice

The city of Columbia uses food waste from 21 local businesses and schools to make compost. In 2015, the city produced a total of 25,979 cubic yards of compost, 4.3 percent of which was food waste.

In her work with MU Campus Dining Services, food production. He’s passionate about preserving Costello also found the type of food wasted has an the earth’s soil — and the natural organisms within impact on the environment. “Not all food waste is it — through composting. “We have more life under created equal,” she says. “The upstream impacts of our feet than above the ground, and people don’t even wasting beef are 15 to 20 times more greenhouse realize that,” he says. gas-intensive than wasting wheat,” she says. “If The food waste that Bains recovers comes from you’re going to waste something, err on the side about 30 businesses outside the Columbia area, of something that is less intensive. The amount of including the Fulton State Hospital. Bains collects 4.8 resources that go into each thing are not the same.” million pounds of food waste per year. This means And yet Costello says there are many complex Bains brings in just under 4.1 million more pounds annually than the city, which collected 734,640 pounds reasons why we waste food, whether we waste it during distribution or during consumption. last year. Bains’ feat is impressive “Part of “I’m not interested in blaming and one that Columbia could undoubtedly learn from. sustainability is to individuals,” she says. “It’s about urban planning and people being very busy. leave something It’s technical and social.”

Beyond food better than how you Mark Haim, the director of Mid-Missouri Peaceworks’ Center Food isn’t the only thing inherited it, for Sustainable Living in Columbia, wasted when we throw our so that’s what we expresses similar concerns. “The half-eaten dinners in the trash. want to do for the true cost of something we utilize or Christine Costello, an assistant something we purchase is much more research professor in the MU next generation.” than the price tag that we’re paying bioengineering program, has — Layli Terrill in dollars,” he says. “We aren’t paying been collaborating with Ronald The city of Columbia’s former for the true costs of our wasteful McGarvey, an assistant professor of industrial and manufacturing waste minimization supervisor behavior. We have to start thinking big and outside of our personal situations. systems engineering, to focus That’s one of the keys to creating a sustainable future. part of her studies on food waste. According to her Have everybody do things in a really thoughtful research, our energy, fertilizer and the land that’s manner.” used to produce food go to waste, as well. “We have finite resources,” Costello says. “However, we’ve had a surplus of food for a couple of generations, so we Changing our ways haven’t been hungry. It’s not a priority for us. It just feels like there’s plenty of food at the grocery store.”

So what can we, as individuals, do to help the country

Woolbright says composting requires two ingredients: brown matter and green matter. The brown matter is carbon-based material such as mulch, wood chips, leaves or grass clippings. The green matter is food waste. When mixing them, include two parts brown for every one part green.

Step 3: Turn your compost If your compost is hot enough (heat is produced when bacteria break down the organic material) and the ratio of brown to green is good, compost will take about three months to decompose, Woolbright says. For faster results, turn your compost regularly.

Step 4: Use as fertilizer Woolbright says you can tell your compost is finished when it reaches a crumbly texture and cools down. You can then use it as fertilizer for home gardens or planters.

ATTEND A FREE compost workshop Visit gocolumbiamo.com to register for one of these upcoming dates: Peace Park

Capen Park

• April 24, 12:30–1:30 p.m., 3–4 p.m. (held at the Earth Day Festival)

• May 17, 6–7 p.m.

• July 23, 10-–11 a.m.

• Sept. 7, 5:30–6:30 p.m.

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By the numbers: U.S. food waste Americans wasted a total of approximately 133 billion pounds of food in 2010, according to a study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That comes out to nearly one-third of the food available for consumption in the United States. But which foods go to waste most often?

Here’s a breakdown by food group: Eggs, nuts and added fats and oils 13.2 billion pounds (10 percent) Grain products 18.5 billion pounds (13.9 percent)

Dairy products 25.4 billion pounds (19.1 percent)

Fruits 18.4 billion pounds (13.9 percent) Vegetables 25.2 billion pounds (19 percent) Added sugars and sweeteners 16.7 billion pounds (12.6 percent) Meat, fish & poultry 15.3 billion pounds (11.5 percent)

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boxes end up in the garbage. And when you’ve had your fill, chuck uneaten food into a compost pile. These are small efforts, sure, but when put together, they could save pounds of organic waste each year.

“Nobody can do everything, but everyone can do something,” Haim says about America’s food waste problem as a whole. “You have to do it fragmentally. Take one step after another.”

Amid so much concern for the system, optimism that we can reduce food waste does exist. “Anything is possible if we decide we’re motivated and willing to do it,” Costello says. “We can do many, many things if we collectively decide it’s worth it.”

The city of Columbia’s food waste collection program began in December 2011. The amount of food waste the city collects has increased every year since the program started, and in 2015, the program brought in more than 367 tons of food.

photos courtesy of pixabay.com

cut food waste in half and prevent Columbia’s landfill from growing ever higher?

The first step is to understand the problem and become more aware of the developing conditions of the country’s agricultural system. From there, we can also take small steps in our own lives to decrease our personal food waste.

For example, when grocery shopping or sorting through food at home, try not to immediately discredit something that doesn’t look perfect. Buying produce locally or even growing your own garden can also help. Not only are these activities sustainable, but they also reduce food transportation and distribution costs.

In the kitchen, cooking cuts down on packaging waste from takeout or premade meals. When planning meals, think about what dishes could be made from what you have, rather than what foods you want to eat.

Learning more about proper storage techniques for produce will prevent food from going bad as quickly, and creating a bin in the refrigerator for foods that need to be eaten sooner than others can also make a difference. Don’t forget to freeze foods that won’t be used immediately.

Although unorthodox, taking reusable containers to restaurants for leftovers can mean fewer Chinese takeout