COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION CYCLES IN MANY WAYS

In Business, January-February, 2005, Vol. 27, No. 1, p. 23

Recognizing that materials recycling is only part of the picture, Eco-Cycle heads into the world of organics diversion and zero waste services.

Dan Matsch

IN BOULDER COUNTY, Colorado, the name Eco-Cycle has long been synonymous with recycling. Founded by committed and visionary volunteers in 1976, Eco-Cycle remains one of the oldest and largest private nonprofit recyclers in the country. Recognizing that recycling is only part of the picture, however, Eco-Cycle is now going beyond recycling and into the world of composting and zero waste services.
Nations around the world have also been moving beyond the traditional boundaries of recycling - implementing “Take Back” laws which make industry either financially or physically responsible for the end-of-life management of their products and packaging. The world is facing up to the facts of groundwater pollution from landfills, toxic air pollution from the burning of waste, and angry citizens organizing ever more into effective groups to protest these violations. These unavoidable realities are driving the search for a large-scale alternative to burying and burning society's discards. And that search has led Eco-Cycle into composting in a very local sense.
“Recycling rates are stagnant at about 30 percent through the recovery of the 'traditional' materials - paper and containers,” says Eco-Cycle's Executive Director Eric Lombardi. “To fulfill our mission of maximizing diversion from the landfill, we have to go after the rest of the waste stream. With about half of the remaining waste stream consisting of potentially compostable materials, we need to start composting.”
The landfill tipping fee in the Boulder area is ridiculously low at a mere $12 per ton. Thus Eco-Cycle's entry strategy into composting needed to be carefully planned. We took a four-pronged strategy approach: Initiating a commercial food waste collection program; Exploring options for a compost site in the ever more densely-populated Boulder area; Creating high-quality compost products to gain marketing experience; and Educating the community about the importance of recovering this valuable resource.

SUCCESSFUL FOOD WASTE COLLECTION PILOT
Beginning with a grant of $8,470 from Boulder County to help offset some of the extra overhead costs, Eco-Cycle launched a six-month pilot program in February 2004 to collect commercially-generated compostable waste from a limited number of diverse businesses in Boulder. The focus of the pilot was intentionally narrow: To teach all employees in a participating business the importance and value of proper source separation of compostables from trash for the purposes of both maximum diversion and ultimately for the highest quality compost.
The pilot began with nine businesses and institutions, including restaurants, cafeterias, flower shops, a small grocery co-op, and one small manufacturer, a local chai brewer (this is Boulder, after all!). Over the course of the six-month pilot, the number of participants grew to 14, including the dormitory cafeterias of the University of Colorado, where University officials wanted to begin practicing source separation in their kitchens in preparation for the inauguration of their own in-vessel composting operation. To do the actual composting, Eco-Cycle partnered with A-1 Organics, a well-established composter with a site in an adjacent county 18 miles from central Boulder.
It was a given that hauling efficiencies would be poor during the pilot. Eco-Cycle used a box truck with a lift-gate to collect full toters from businesses on a once or twice per week schedule and then hauled 20 toters at a time to the A-1 composting site for manual unloading. Participating businesses were not charged for the service while Eco-Cycle learned what kind of diversion rate to expect from the different types of businesses.
As the pilot phase wrapped up in September, participants saw a 30 percent decrease in their garbage, and were thrilled to see resources move from the trash bin to the compost bin.

SECOND PHASE BEGINS
Eco-Cycle is now transitioning into a second phase of the program, expected to last an additional six to eight months, during which we will test the revenue and expense assumptions established during the pilot. Because of the high recycling ethic and environmental awareness in Boulder, Eco-Cycle expects that there is a certain number of businesses willing to pay extra for the service at first to support the program, but eventually, as program manager Dale Ekart puts it, they will want to see the result in the bottom line.
“We'd like to see if we can bring the total number of participants to around 50 in the next phase,” Ekart says. “From the pilot results, we project that our costs will be around $11 to $12 per pickup. The standard charge to participants for the service will be $15 per pickup. If we can divert enough waste from the trash that participants can either reduce the frequency of trash service or the size of their dumpster, overall waste service costs will remain constant.”
Whole Foods Market recently signed up for the service with Eco-Cycle, adding a designated roll-off compactor specifically for compostable waste from all departments of their Boulder store, their largest store by volume in the country. In the first two months of participation, the store composted 67 percent of their total waste. With recently completed additional training, they expect to meet their goal of 70 percent diversion in the near future.

THE CHEAP DISPOSAL CHALLENGE
Central to the long-term success of the composting service is the improvement of hauling efficiencies. Eco-Cycle purchased a used rear-load packer truck that has taken over the food waste route. Ekart will be closely monitoring the number of pick-ups per hour, expected to be somewhat fewer than a standard trash route. The truck is equipped with a toter-tipper and a container washing system so that it can pick up both toters and small dumpsters and give them a quick rinse when tipped if they start to get too stinky. Ekart selected the standard trash truck design because it is easy to find as fleet needs expand, and the trucks can be used for multiple purposes.
Flexibility and lean operating costs will also be paramount to the ultimate success of the program, because though people who live in Boulder County generally want to do what's best for the environment, they also are accustomed to paying some of the cheapest landfill disposal rates in the country. Tipping fees at area landfills are about $12 per ton, while the tipping fee at the A-1 composting site is currently $16.50 per ton. Add to that the extra hauling distance and time, and Eco-Cycle has quite a challenge making the program cost-effective in the long term.

LONG-TERM SOLUTION - LOCAL COMPOSTING SITE
Long before initiating the compost pilot, Eco-Cycle began scouting around the area for potential composting sites closer to the population centers so we could eventually minimize hauling costs. But undeveloped industrial properties are in short supply and land costs are astronomically high. Also, there is the ever-present danger of a semi-urban composting site being shut down because of odor complaints. Eco-Cycle is still looking for the ideal site, but to mitigate the odor concerns and land costs, we are exploring the possibility of stabilizing the material using an in-vessel composting system that can be placed close to town on a minimally-sized property, and then curing the compost at a second, more isolated site if space does not allow for curing at the in-vessel site.
Our determination to find our own composting site is not based solely on the economics of reducing hauling costs; it's part of our philosophy that as populations increase and natural resources dwindle, we need to stop dumping our trash on our neighbors and start looking at it as the valuable resource that it is. Educating the public about reducing waste and the wise use of resources has always been the centerpiece of Eco-Cycle's mission. Eco-Cycle strives to create solutions to our local waste management dilemmas that can be models for the world, and a local composting site can be an enormously helpful educational tool.
With no operating landfills in Boulder County, the old adage, “out of sight, out of mind,” is extremely difficult to overcome. The nearest operating landfill, just over the county line, recently won an expansion of over 100 acres with virtually no notice in Boulder. Without knowing or understanding the alternatives, Boulder residents will be sending their compostable trash to the landfill for many years to come, ensuring the emission of methane and other greenhouse gases and the polluting of our groundwater for generations. Standing as testament to the problems landfills inevitably create, a landfill-turned Superfund site just outside the Boulder city limits has cost Boulder taxpayers nearly $5 million and counting in cleanup costs since it was shut down in 1991 by Subtitle D regulations. Unfortunately, this too is largely ignored or forgotten.
Yet on our side of the county line, opportunities to find a few acres for composting are few and the possibility of neighborhood opposition is real. Advocating for a site is a challenge almost on the same scale as trying to convince people to recycle newspaper was nearly 30 years ago.

COMMUNITY-BUILDING TO REACH OUR GOAL
Good compost, on the other hand, can sell itself. The key to reaching our goal is to make the connection in people's minds between healthy soil, good local food, and their own compostable discards. Boulder is home to a flourishing farmers' market that is popular in large part because its structure highlights local growers and the importance of local agriculture. So to begin building visibility for our composting program, Eco-Cycle purchased a 25-gallon compost tea brewer, set up some plant trials to demonstrate the effectiveness of compost tea, and staffed a booth at the farmers' market.
Our positive trial results drew plenty of interest, and customers had a great time experimenting with the tea on their gardens and lawns. We sold our product at $6 a gallon, and before noon on the first day we realized we had to buy a 100-gallon brewer to meet demand. Most importantly, the tea proved to be the community conversation piece we had hoped for to start building community enthusiasm for our composting vision.
We plan to expand our work at the farmers' market next year by making it the nation's first Zero Waste Farmers' Market. We will add vermicompost and composting worms to our sale inventory and expand our testing of compost tea with local growers and perhaps some plots on City parks or golf courses. And some day soon, we'll have our own finished compost to sell.

Dan Matsch is a compost program manager with Eco-Cycle, based in Boulder, Colorado. He can be contacted via e-mail at dan@ecocycle.org.

TAKING THE TRASH CAN OUT OF THE OFFICE
According to Eco-Cycle, it's time to get serious about decreasing the amount of stuff America's businesses are throwing away, and that's just what their new Zero Waste Services project is trying to do.
Imagine Zero Waste Services in a typical office or retail situation: bins are placed for dry recyclables, for wet compostables, and then for whatever's left-the residuals. Since the residuals will be a very small amount in most cases (mostly nonrecyclable plastics), rather than using a bin, they could potentially be bagged and thrown in with the dry recyclables to be plucked from the sorting line at the recycling/processing facility. Outside in the alley, the old trash dumpster is gone, replaced by wheeled carts and dumpsters for recycling and composting.
With the trash dumpster gone, we still have the bulk items to collect, like computer equipment, office electronics, old chairs and shelves. For this, Eco-Cycle has created a "hard-to-recycle" collection system that is an on-call fee service on an as-needed basis.
The goal is that the cost of this complete new collection system for recycling, composting and residuals will be equal to the cost of the old trash/recycling system. Eco-Cycle's approach to meeting that goal will entail employing collection efficiencies such as eliminating or reducing the number of hauls required for residuals and using that savings to pay for the costs of the organics collection. Key to the overall success of Zero Waste Services will be Eco-Cycle's "mission based" pricing structure created as an incentive for businesses to choose Zero Waste over garbage collection. The service will be offered for only a 10 percent profit, compared to the typical commercial trash hauling profit of 30 percent.
In the end, the landfill diversion rate will have doubled or even tripled and the monthly service charge will be … well … Eco-Cycle isn't quite sure yet. The project has only recently been introduced to their traditional recycling customers so only a few have switched to the full service so far, but according to Executive Director Eric Lombardi, it appears that the economics are working with the larger clients. Lombardi says the verdict is still out for the smaller customers, but that the clear challenge Eco-Cycle faces now is to reduce the costs of the organics side of the equation, especially the processing and marketing composting.
Zero Waste Services will truly become a "Zero Waste - Or Darn Near" project when Eco-Cycle adds the final element, a Zero Waste Purchasing Support Service. The idea will be to focus on the residuals bin by conducting periodic and simple waste audits with the involvement of the customer's purchasing staff who will learn exactly what types of materials they are buying that cannot be recovered. Eco-Cycle staffers will then help them find suitable alternatives that are recyclable. The purchasing staff will become key players and workplace all-stars as they help move their company toward Zero Waste and more sustainable business practices. Over time, Eco-Cycle will build an on-line database of common substitute products that all purchasing agents can share as members of the local Zero Waste Business Club.
Will this idea work in the marketplace? Stay tuned, because if it does then commercial discard management may look very different in the future. Instead of hiring a company named Waste Management, you may be hiring one named Zero Waste Management. - D.M.

Copyright 2007, The JG Press, Inc.