Transforming OC into first zero-waste resort

Volunteer muscle behind Go Green team turns food scraps into rich compost

By Cindy Hoffman Staff Writer

(May 12,2023) Ocean City restaurants and other food service businesses continue to abandon the old throw-away model of dealing with food waste and instead are joining the ranks of food waste composters.

“As a country, we waste about 40 percent of our food,” Garvey Heiderman, owner of the Hobbit Restaurant, founder of Ocean Compost LLC and director of compost operations for Go Green OC, said.

In Ocean City, all of that food and other waste goes to Chester, Pennsylvania to be incinerated. But gradu- ally, Ocean Compost and Go Green OC are changing that one restaurant and one mind at a time.

The two groups are working together to transform Ocean City into the first zero waste resort town in the United States.

In 2018, they conducted their first compost pilot program with The Hobbit restaurant, collecting nearly 2000 pounds of food waste in four weeks. Heiderman was driven when he realized that 51 percent of his restaurant’s waste was compostable.

The collection effort has grown exponentially since then. Last year, 12 restaurants participated, contributing 230,000 pounds of waste.

This year, nearly 30 restaurants are participating. The program is expected to divert between 500750,000 pounds of food waste.

Josh Chamberlain, founder of Go Green OC. “In 2023, we should surpass one million pounds of food waste diverted since the inception of our program in 2018 and grow our zero waste goals in tandem with our local allies.”

This might seem like a lot, but the resort generates about 35,000 tons of single stream waste a year.

One might assume that this is a massive effort, which requires a lot of machinery, staff and resources. But it is actually run with one staff person, one truck, a lot of trash cans, a Bobcat and 15 volunteers.

The process is pretty simple.

Tree services provide the wood chips for free. Ocean Pines provided leaves last year and Heiderman hopes to get more leaves from the community this year.

“You can compost anything organic, from wood chips, to leaves, to grass to food waste and bio-solids, to me and you.

“A lot of people have this misconception that it is eggshells and vegetable scraps and coffee grounds and that’s it.”

‘You can compost anything organic, from wood chips, to leaves, to grass to food waste and bio-solids, to me and you.’

Garvey Heiderman, founder of Ocean Compost LLC and director of compost operations for Go Green OC

Alyssa Howard, the only paid staff person with Ocean Compost, weighs and picks up full trash cans from participating restaurants in the morning and brings them to the farm in Worcester County, where the composting happens. Volunteers meet Howard at the farm to unload the cans, slash open bags and pick out any contaminants such as plastic or rubber gloves. They rinse out the cans, let them air dry and reload the truck for the next pick-up.

“We are taking the food waste, which is our nitrogen-rich material, and mixing that with the wood chips, which is our carbon-rich material,” Heiderman said.

The ratio is three to one, wood chips to food.

This year, they have added Higgins Crab House North and South to the list of participating restaurants.

“The barrier to entry to dairy, seafood and meat is doing things on a larger scale and size to achieve a higher temperature range than an at home composter can reach.

“Once we get to a certain temperature range, everything organic will break down.”

Meat products decompose within a matter of weeks, according to Heiderman.

The compost pile is aerated with a blower that moves air through PVC pipes at its base. Pipes go under the pile to keep the core cool and the top of the pile warm.

It takes about three to four weeks for the active process to be done.

“When you have good fresh compost, you should get the forest floor scent,” Heiderman said.