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Success Stories
Food Waste
Many organizations have successful food recovery programs. Use the online form to tell us about your food scraps diversion or recovery project.
Food Waste Reduction
Shopping for Change
| PDF Version
(1 pg, 381K, about
PDF)
Recycling food scraps is good for the environment
and business! Supermarkets in Massachusetts are
reducing, recovering, and recycling their food waste
and saving money by participating in the state’s
voluntary supermarket recycling certification program.
Feed Hungry People
Rock and
Wrap It Up! Helps Fight Hunger | PDF
Version (1 pg, 645K,
about
PDF)
Rock and Wrap It Up! (RWU) program is a national
anti-poverty think tank that arranges the collection
and local donation of leftover food and other basic
necessities from rock concerts, sporting events,
hotels, corporate meetings, political rallies, and
school cafeterias. Among those organizations that
have worked with RWU are the New York Giants, the
Las Vegas Motor Speedway and the Hyatt Grand Hotel
in New York City.
Feed Animals
Food Scraps Go to
the Animals | PDF
Version (1 pg, 280K,
about
PDF)
Don’t throw away your food waste! Barthold
Recycling and Roll-Off Services picks up food scraps
from commercial businesses and feeds the scraps
to pigs and cattle.
Feeding Animals - The
Business Solution to Food Scraps | PDF
Version (2 pp, 758K,
about
PDF)
New Jersey's Rutgers University, the third largest
student dining operation in the country, is a leader
in food scraps diversion. To reduce the amount of
food waste generated at Rutgers, the dining halls
partnered with a local farm. Pinter Farms, who collects
on average 1.125 tons of food scraps per day from
Rutgers' four main dining halls and feeds it to
its hogs and cattle.
Industrial Uses
Food to Fuel
| PDF Version
(1 pg, 327K, about
PDF)
Want fries with that fill up? With Pacific Biodiesel
you can. Hawaii-based Pacific Biodiesel, Inc. converts
recycled cooking oil into fuel that powers generators,
commercial equipment, vehicles, and marine vessels.
Biodiesel production diverts cooking oil from landfills,
while its use reduces emissions of major greenhouse
gases and substances such as carbon monoxide, carbon
dioxide, volatile organic compounds, hazardous diesel
particulates, and the acid-rain-causing sulfur dioxide.
Composting
Fine Dining Returns
to the Earth | PDF
Version (2 pp, 964K,
about
PDF)
Guests and the environment both receive the royal
treatment at the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. By focusing on behind the scenes operations,
such as food waste management, the hotel is preserving
environmental resources and saving money without
compromising the guest experience.
Ho-Chunk Nation's Composting Improves Human Health and the Environment, a Resource Conservation Challenge news story, tells how the Ho-Chunk Nations started its program as a health initiative to address diabetes. Through this work, the Nation found a way to address not only its impact on the environment, but also the health of the community by encouraging gardening, healthier living, and better food choices.
EPA's Tribal Waste Journal: Tribal Composting Nourishes Land and Tradition (PDF) (28 pp, 982K, about PDF) includes case studies on food scraps composting from various Native American tribes and Alaskan Native villages.
Past Success Stories
Larry's Markets, Inc., a five-store grocery chain (sold in 2006) based in Seattle, Washington, successfully incorporated recycling and food scrap composting into its business operations. Larry's Markets began composting and practicing other forms of recycling in 1991, and all five stores participated in these composting activities. By doing so, Larry's Markets diverted close to 900 tons of materials (including food scraps, floral discards, and waxed cardboard) from disposal in 1998. The grocery store chain also sent food residuals to a topsoil facility for recovery and used organic materials in its landscaping activities.
In 1996, Middlebury
College 
in Middlebury, Vermont, collected about 288 tons
of food discards for on-campus composting. This
saved 75 percent of the college's food discards
from being disposed of in a landfill or incinerator.
In addition, the composting program saves the college
approximately $137 per ton in landfill hauling and
tipping fees. As a result, the college saved more
than $27,000 in waste disposal fees that year. From
1993, the year of the program's inception, through
2000, the college has saved more than $125,000 in
waste disposal fees.
The Frost
Valley YMCA
in Claryville, New York, composts 100 percent of
its food discards from its kitchen and dining room
and uses the compost in landscaping applications
and for an on-site greenhouse and an organic garden.
By doing so, the Frost Valley facility composts
about 80 tons of food scraps per year and saves
nearly $10,000 in waste disposal costs.
More Information
California Integrated Waste Management Board's
Food
Scrap Reduction Case Studies
Connecticut's Department of Environmental Protection
has several Commercial
and Institutional Food Scrap Recycling Pilot Projects
food scrap recycling pilot projects underway.
NYCWasteLess, New York City's one-stop waste prevention
and recycling resource, features case
studies
describing how businesses have reduced their food
waste.
WasteCap Wisconsin's Web site has several case
studies
describing how grocery stories and other organizations
have reduced their food waste.
