Composting/Zero Waste
December 2010 Update:
Waste Oil Recycling: Keep saving your cooking oil and bring it to the Art Blooms Earth Festival on April 30th at Croft Farm! Here’s how.
Sandi’s Trash Talk: First “Livingroom” chat about waste will be at Sandi Lichtman’s house in Cherry Hill at 1819 Fireside Lane. She can fit up to 25 people, so reservations are required. Registration link coming soon.
For more information about this task force, contact lori.braunstein@sustainablecherryhill.org .
Compost/Zero Waste Task Force
Mission statement: The goal of the Zero Waste task force is to reduce and divert waste, increase recycling and maximize the proper disposal of hazardous waste by researching waste options, conducting analysis and developing relationships with the township, the community and the business sector.
Strategies
- Facilitate recycling; reusing and reducing waste by diverting food waste; increasing the number of plastics that our municipality recycles; minimizing the amount of hazardous waste from going to the incinerator; maximizing the amount of items that can be reused.
- Providing resources for residents on how to reduce waste; options on drop-off or donation locations in order to maximize reuse of items; working with the township to identify possibilities to facilitate this effort; facilitating avenues to connect excess goods to those in need of the goods
- Partnering and sharing concepts with surrounding townships and boroughs to set benchmarks and share best practices.
- Developing relationships with agencies or organizations that have the need for used items such as books, eyeglasses, vases, etc.
Objectives
- Providing education on waste reduction, recycling, composting, and risks of hazardous waste incineration. Ongoing
- Determining feasibility of composting in the region. Ongoing
- Creating two separate deliverables: residential and commercial. Completed.
- Determining the availability of haulers to transport food waste in the area. Completed
- Locating haulers in the area and facilitating discussions between the hauler and the commercial food waste generators- initially restaurants. Completed
- Negotiating cost for area restaurants with hauler(s). Completed
- Investigating the cycle of food waste and how to minimize the waste. Completed
- Considering impacts on the local area by diverting the waste. Ensuring that the diversion does not negatively impact those who may need food in the community. (pig farmers, food banks). Completed
- Identify the various ways to divert waste- digesters, anaerobic, aerobic, bins, etc. Completed
- Analyze the sustainability of the proposed solutions. Ongoing
- Utilizing best practices of other locations that have food waste diversion operations. Completed
- Identifying additional waste reduction opportunities. Ongoing
- Increasing the number of plastics that can be recycled to include numbers 3 to 7. Ultimately this will be a part of single stream but it could be a separate collection site initially.
- Locating a hauler/MERF that will take plastics #3 through #7 and will utilize in a sustainable way. Completed
- Providing a resource list on website. In progress
- Teaching residents about different composting options by offering classes, providing design ideas and resources. Ongoing
- Determining issues for composting in the township; food waste composting issues. Ongoing
- Identifying the feasibility for the Department of Public Works (DPW) to be a clearinghouse for hazardous waste as well as other items. Ongoing
- Developing relationships with community members to be additional leaders in the task force. Ongoing
As Philly gears up with a RecycleBank rollout today in North Philadelphia, the Inquirer provides us with an in depth look behind the scenes of the Blue Mountain recycling processor in Grey’s Ferry. This facility, owned by Casella Waste Systems works nearly identical to FCR in Pennsauken, where our recycling goes from Cherry Hill. In August of 2008, I had the pleasure of taking a private tour through FCR and saw first hand how single stream recycling works. That visit is documented here.
This fascinating article by Sandy Bauers details how the recycling is sorted, where the sorted materials end up, what is a recyclers worst nightmare (think plastic bags) and the do’s/don’ts of what can go in your recycling bin. One important thing to note: Recycling is the third and last “R” in the adage “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”. Recycling uses energy, often gets shipped to China and is victim to market fluctuations in demand for recycled materials. Think about your consumer habits. Only buy what you need, look at packaging and repurposing of things you may want to toss in the trash. Purchase goods made from recycled material too!
February 1, 2010
Posted in: News, Task Forces - Composting/Zero Waste, Uncategorized 
No Comments
Remember the movie Back to the Future where food waste fueled the DeLorean car that zoomed Michael J. Fox’s character through time?
That “future” scenario may be closer to reality in Cherry Hill.
The Sustainable Cherry Hill Compost/Zero Waste task force has been investigating possibilities on reducing waste in the township. According to the EPA, food accounts for 31 million tons of all of the municipal food waste, yet only 3% of this is recycled. Approximately 75% of all restaurants waste can be recycled in some capacity; including bottles, paper, plastics, oil and food waste.
The initial task force plan will focus on food waste from commercial establishments, such as restaurants and delis. The task force analyzed options for recovering and recycling food waste, identified food waste generators, investigated types of processing, determined environmental benefits and consequences, and visited a variety of waste processing sites. The project team, headed up by SCH board member, Melisa Skyrm, also determined any unintentional impact from diverting waste such as impact on farmers and food banks.
Our task force pilot program begins November 23, 2009 at Mirabella Cafe located at 210 Barclay Shopping Center, Route 70, Cherry Hill, NJ. Owner and Chef Joe Palombo is also executive director of South Jersey Green Dining and serves on the board of SCH. His commitment to sustainability, the development of the pilot program and his desire to share best practices with other establishments made this an ideal location to test and begin the project. All food waste from the Mirabella Café kitchen prep area as well as any post-consumer waste that would normally be discarded will go into separate bins to be collected for recycling as compost or fertilizer. During the first steps of the pilot program, the task force will collect data and determine best practices and overall feasibility so the program can be expanded to include other interested communities and restaurants.
Premier Recycling will be the company handling and diverting the food waste. The company is part of Central Jersey Waste located in Trenton, NJ and owned by Frank Fiumefreddo, Jr. The company has been a leader in food diversion. The company’s environmental initiatives include purchasing a fleet of natural gas trucks that burn cleaner and more efficiently than diesel fuel. Premier will pick up food waste weekly and take it to the final sites for processing. The food waste will go to a variety of food waste recycling streams. This includes nearby farms for traditional composting in windrows, companies that create natural fertilizer, and a high-tech compost company. The company that creates natural fertilizer is Converted Organics in Woodbridge, New Jersey; the compost company is Peninsula Compost in Delaware. The plan for the future is that food waste will be processed even closer to our area and could potentially be utilized to make fuel for the collection trucks.
We will keep you posted with new developments on Sustainable Cherry Hill’s website. Check out the task force’s field trip to Peninsula Compost Company
November 24, 2009
Posted in: News, Task Forces - Composting/Zero Waste No Comments
One Response
Hi Melisa,
It was great to speak with you at the FRESH movie night! I’m the person from Voorhees asking about backyard composting at the end of the program…I’d love to speak/correspond with you and find out more about what Cherry Hill and Voorhees are doing. What can we do in the community to move the process along? I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks, Jodi