News

February 1, 2010

Composting Cuts New Jersey Café's Costs

Mirabella Café isn't the first restaurant to set up its own process for turning food scraps into compost. But chef Joe Palombo wouldn't mind if it were the last, at least in his part of southern New Jersey.

Not that he's against composting, mind you. Every week, the 180-seat café diverts a ton of uneaten pasta, meat scraps and other food waste to programs that process and re-channel it for agricultural use. The effort has cut Palombo's trash-hauler fees by nearly $200 a month.

But there was no standard operating procedure for restaurants that wanted their plate scrapings to replenish the soil instead of clogging a Dumpster. Few had the time or know-how to figure out the means on their own. So he decided to present his experiences as a how-to guide for other places in the area. Instead of having to blaze their own processes, they'd have a ready-made trail map.

The advantage of having an experienced guide was evident early in Palombo's explorations. As the first restaurant in Cherry Hill, N.J., to try composting, he couldn't find a company in the area that would take his food scraps. He turned for help to a local environmental group called Sustainable New Jersey, which paired him with Melisa Skyrm, a volunteer who had composted before moving to the area from Seattle.

Skyrm, in turn, started seeking out other local allies. "I just started looking online and calling places," she says.

Knowing that Whole Foods composted, Skyrm reached out to the nearest branch of the natural-foods retailer. Sure enough, the outlet provided some leads on companies that pick up food waste. "That made a huge difference," she says.

She also found a new facility in nearby Delaware, called Peninsula Compost, which turns biodegradable waste into natural fertilizer and soil supplements. A pipeline was starting to form.

But with only one restaurant shipping scraps to the facility, the hauling cost was not insignificant. Skyrm reached out to other area eateries interested in composting, using their intentions as a bargaining chip.

She told the hauler that 15 other restaurants were interested in composting, but he was skeptical, Palombo says.

Still, the hauler agreed to charge $200 a month — about what the fine-dining place would save from fewer pick-ups of its non-biodegradable trash.

Operationally, the changeover to composting was a breeze, Palombo and Skyrm say.

Palombo bout 32-gallon covered bins that roll on coasters for the restaurant. During morning prep, staffers put the bin by the tables where the cooks peel and chop to collect t leftover vegetable matter. When they get busy with customers, they roll the bins by the dishwashing machine, where dishwashers scrape the plates. "You're doing the same thing you always were, except now you're scraping the food into this bin instead of that one," Palombo says.v

If other restaurants follow Mirabella into composting, the hauling costs could decrease for all the users. But some restaurateurs are hesitant to keep food scraps for a week.

"The odor is a big concern," Skyrm says. "But it's really not any different from what you're doing already, except now you're keeping the food waste separate."

Palombo has hired Skyrm part-time to help him involve more local restaurants in the composting program and other sustainability initiatives. They've formed a group called SJGreenDining to promote their joint efforts. It has 10 members.

The composting process forged by Mirabella "isn't perfect," Skyrm says. "But we had to start the conversation someplace. Sometimes you just have to plunge in and see how it goes."

The task was simple for Mirabella because the recovery facility in Delaware takes meat and dairy refuse along with vegetable matter, Skyrm says. Many places accept the only the latter.

Palombo says the program has attracted as a surprising volume of local press coverage, as well as interest from other restaurateurs. "I didn't realize that this was such a big thing and would get so much attention," he says.