Make dirt, not waste: local restaurants start composting

Restaurants produce a lot of trash, and most of it winds up in landfills, where they produce methane, which contributes to global warming. Composting, by contrast, turns the waste into nutrient-rich soil.

At a press conference Monday morning at the Wedge co-op, mayor RT Rybak joined Susan Hubbard of Eureka Recycling, and owners of the five restaurants that participated in a pilot composting project: Danny Schwartzman of Common Roots, Tracy Singleton of the Birchwood Café, and Kim Bartmann, who owns Barbette, the Red Stag Supper Club and Bryant Lake Bowl. "It's easy to think about where the food comes from," said Schwartzman. "It's easier to forget about where the food goes."

Since the launch of the program, five other local food businesses have joined the project, including the Fireroast Mountain Café, Sen Yai Sen Lek, Gluek's Restaurant and Bar, Brasa, and Chowgirls Killer Catering. For links and details, check out www.makedirtnotwaste.org.

According to Susan Hubbard, CEO of Eureka Recycling, the participating restaurants are now recycling or composting over 90 percent of their kitchen waste. The compostable wastes are collected from the restaurants by truck, and processed by commercial composting facilities. It's a little different from backyard composting - city ordinances prohibit backyard composting of meat products, but the commercial composting operations are able to handle meat leftovers, as well as a variety of paper products that cannot be recycled.

A pilot project in the Linden Hills neighborhood offers curbside pickup of compostable wastes - check out the website of Linden Hills Power and Light for details.

Jeremy Iggers

Jeremy Iggers (jeremy@tcmediaalliance.org) is the executive director of the Twin Cities Media Alliance.