by Jennifer Erickson
Metro launched its fullscale commercial food residuals composting program in January 2005. Many valuable lessons were learned along the sometimes rocky road. This article relates the history of the program in the context of 10 key lessons my mother taught me early in life. Little did she know these lessons aptly applied to putting together the infrastructure to support a food residuals diversion program!
I work for Metro, a regional government headed by a directly-elected Council that deals with transportation and land use planning, parks, open spaces, visitor services like the Zoo and Convention Center, solid waste reduction planning and the solid waste disposal system. Metro owns two transfer stations and contracts for its operation as well as for landfilling the region’s waste. It serves 25 cities and three counties in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area representing 1.4 million people.
Back in 1995, the Metro region wrote and adopted a Regional Solid Waste Management Plan. It included some recommended practices and strategies for commercial organics recovery. These practices placed the burden on the private sector to initiate development of an organics recovery system. We we published this organics plan and then we waited. And we waited … and waited some more.
Finally, in 1999 we knew something had to give. We had over 275,000 tons of food and nonrecyclable paper being landfilled annually and we needed to recover 45,000 tons of that to reach our state-mandated 62% recovery level by 2005. The good news is we reach a 57% recovery rate in 2003. The bad news is the recovery rate in the organics sector. While we do recover and compost 80% of our yard trimmings (as of 2003), food was the largest remaining component of the waste stream that had no real recovery infrastructure in place.
Lesson #1: Clean Your Plate (or at least ‘Fork it Over!’)
We sat down and wrote a comprehensive organics plan based on the highest and best use: food as food – what a concept! The plan had a two-track approach; the first focused on recovery for donation to food banks and the second focused on composting what remained.
Considering that Oregon has one of the highest rates of hunger and food insecurity in the nation, this approach was a natural. The Oregon Food Bank has a network of over 750 member agencies and there is an existing infrastructure in place to collect, store and distribute surplus food. The trick was we were focusing on perishable and pre-prepared foods and the infrastructure to handle these items was much weaker. So we put together a grant program for food rescue agencies to purchase refrigerated trucks, walk-in coolers, freezers and a myriad of other items designed to increase thier ability to receive, safely handle, store and distribute perishable foods.
Five years and $700,000 in grant funds later, we’ve helped food rescue agencies put over 9000 tons of additional fresh food in the stomachs of Oregon’s hungry. and for every dollar Metro spent, there was a $31 benefit to the region’s food banks – a darn good return on investment.
After helping strengthen infrastructure, we focused on getting the word out, myth busting, and serving as the link between the potential donor and the food rescue agencies. We spent a fair amount of time and effort understanding the barriers and benefits to food donation before we structured our program. The result is Fork it Over!, an outreach program to the food industry that addresses the real and perceived barriers and benefits of donation.
Our message is: it’s safe, simple and the right thing to do. Safe, because Good Samaritan laws protect good faith donors. Simple, because we will set up the program and make the connections for them, or they can use the interactive website to find the food rescue agency nearest them that meets their needs. The right thing to do, because businesses contribute to the community that supports them.
Lesson #2: Money Can’s Buy You Love (or a Compost Facility)
In 2000 we gathered up our 14 local yard trimmings composters and asked them if they were interested in taking the next step with us and upgrading their facilities to accommodate food residuals. They replied with an enthusiastic “Yes!” and then they followed up with a resounding … “If you pay for it!”
We were prepared for the inevitable “it’ll cost ya” hitch and in 2000 we happily issued a matching grant program that offered up to $500,000 in funds for infrastructure and equipment upgrades to build local capacity for food residuals composting. And then we waited for the expected flood of applications … and waited. You would think with 14 area yard trimmings composters, we’d get more than one viable application, right? Nope.
So we revised the program, reduced the match requirement and broadened the field to include on-site food residuals systems for businesses and institutions. We also included waste haulers so they could upgrade for collection. We did some pretty cool pilot projects and iinstalled a large-scale vermi-composting unit at a local museum, but still had no real processing capacity – nor did we seem to hae the local interest we expected.
So we tried again. Third time is the charm, right? This time the City of Portland took the lead and issued a Request for Proposals for a food residuals composting facility. Metro put up $700,000 and the City added $300,000 for a cool million. We thought we had it this time. We got through the selection process, chose a reputable vendor (Norcal Waste Systems), drafted a contract and then after one failed attempt at securing the site for the new facility, Norcal pulled out.
We gathered our $700,000, wiped our eyes and went home. Ever the optimists (or idiots), we tried again! In 2003, Metro issued yet another grant, offering half a million dollars for a composting facility. And this time we got a really good bite …
Lesson #3: Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket (Or One Grant Program)
We were thrilled to begin discussions with Threemile Canyon Farms, a huge dairy operation 150 miles from Portland in an arid area that was already composting over 500,000 tons of dairy manure annually. Our little bit of food residuals would be merely a blip on the radar screen! We visited the farm and were impressed by its commitment to sustainable practices despite its tremendous size.
By the fall of 2003, we had negotiated a contract and drafted a composting rate ordinance. We took everything to the appropriate committees and scheduled all the legislative hearings. Threemile Canyon went through the arduous task of months of public hearings, land use permitting and Department of Environmental Quality permitting, and the hubbub and falderal that always accompanies such things. We made the 3-hour one-way drive repeatedly to talk with local county officials and be there to answer questions at various and sundry hearings. Threemile Canyon was a terrific and patient partner.
And then the lawyers showed up … leading to Lesson #4.
Lesson #4: Don’t Count Your Chickens (or Your Cows) Until They are Hatched
“Gosh,” our attorney said as he reviewed the contract we filed with our governing Council … “you can’t go ahead with this contract. You didn’t follow the right procurement practice for both composting and transportation services. You can either contract only for composting and then bid out transportation separately at this point, or you can start all over again at the beginning.”
Lesson #5: Practice Makes Perfect ( or at
Least Acceptable to the Attorneys)
We apologized profusely to Threemile Canyon and started all over at the beginning and issued an officially-sanctioned, triple reviewed, T’s crossed, air tight and nicely bound Request for Proposals that looked remarkably like the grant program (with some legal stuff added.) Thankfully, we received three very good proposals … leading us to Lesson #6.
Lesson #6: Good Things Come to Those Who Wait (Or are Stubborn Enough Not to Give Up)
While Threemile had provided a strong proposal, we were pleasantly surprised by the proposal we received from a company called Cedar Grove Composting Inc. in Maple Valley, Washington. Its primary business was composting. Cedar Grove had loads of experience with it, including urban food residuals. It already had a permitted and operating facility with another under construction, had good relationships with regulators and had proven to be the type of company that is in it for the long haul – when there were problems, they were fixed.
Lesson #7: A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned (Or $500,000 Saved)
Cedar Grove not only offered us a very reasonable tip fee for transportation and composting, it included revenue sharing on the sale of the finished product, and a commitment to build, own and operate a local facility once we reached 10,000 tons a year. To top it off, the cmopany didn’t want any of the $500,000 Metro offered in the RFP! In return, we would ensure the feedstock was acceptable, Cedar Grove was entitled to all organics coming through Metro facilities for five years, and we would not offer grants or loans to other facilities.
Metro signed a 5-year contract with Cedar Grove on December 20, 2004. That was a two-martini night! It was also the culmination of nine years of two steps forward and one step back and so many people saying “I’ll believe it when I see it!”
Relieved, I began to think “Now that all the work is finally done, what will I do now?”
Lesson #8: A Woman’s Work is Never Done
Just when you think it’s safe to take a lunch hour, you realize the last 10 years of your life have culminated in the completion of … Step One! Now we had to figure out how to put an actual program together and implement it.
Lesson #9: It Takes Two to Tango (in our case, Eight)
We do a very complex dance in the Portland Metro Region. The City of Portland is the largest city in the region with the majority of food residuals generators, and it has the most complex commercial solid waste collection system. Every other city or county in the region has private haulers who have franchised collection areas they serve and the local government sets collections rates and standards. Not Portland!
While the residential sector is franchised, the commercial sector is free market and there over 50 independent hauling companies doing business in the city. Portland has the ability to mandate that businesses separate food residuals as they do with recycling but for now the program is voluntary. Its also voluntary for haulers.
So, how do you put a program together in a highly competitive environment where the city doesn’t set collection rates, there’s no promised financial incentive, the program is voluntary for the customer and the hauler and you don’t want to step on any toes while you’re doing the tango? Here are the dance steps:
City gets list of willing haulers; City puts together list of largest generators; City sends letter to small groups of businesses at a time; City hires Persuasive Tim to recruit business and set up initial meetings and notify affected hauler; Persuasive Tim and hauler visit the business and those interested are turned over to Capable Christopher from Applied Compost Consulting; he flies from San Francisco to review the site layout and logistics with the customer and hauler and recommend a setup; Juggling Ginny does all the necessary scheduling and notifications; business negotiates service frequency and cost with hauler; business is then contacted to schedule a staff training session with Capable Christopher and delivery of containers; hopefully, the hauler begins collection service according to agreed schedule; hauler delivers loads to Metro Central Transfer Station for a tip fee of $47.50 per ton (rather than $72 for garbage); Metro and BFI/ Allied personnel (our contract operator) inspect and clean up the loads if needed; BFI/ Allied reloads the acceptable organics into long-haul trailers, delivers to composting facility, washes and returns them; Cedar Grove composts food residuals.
Keep in mind this program is in the very early stages, with only one of 25 cities and 3 counties in the region participating!
Lesson #10: What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger (or What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been)
After starting on a small scale with existing separation programs in place, we have moved far in four months. February totaled 25 tons diverted, and if the first 10 days are any indication, we are on track to exceed 750 tons for June 2005. Early participants include 40 Portland public schools, Clark County, Washington schools, Portland International Airport’s food vendors, and airline kitchens and surrounding hotels. Now we have a wide range of restaurants and grocery chains including 100 Safeway stores, hospital cafeterias, produce warehouses and some large hotels doing a very impressive job of separation. One local chain of pubs recently reported a 70% reduction in their waste once they began with the program.
We are very close to the number of tons needed for Cedar Grove to locate a facility here. In fact, they are already taking steps to get a site permitted.
So don’t despair and don’t give up. If we can do it, anyone can. It may take 10 years, but remember, practice makes perfect! My advice to you, listen to your mother!
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Jennifer Erickson is a Senior Planner at Metro in Portland, Oregon. She has been with Metro for 15 years and serves as the organics program manager as well as the local government liaison for waste reduction and recycling planning.
FROM Biocycle, a SustainableBusiness.com Content Partner.
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