COMPOSTING
The food service guide to keeping compostables out of landfills
Green Mountain Compost
Why composting matters to your business
Add up spoilage, trimmings and plate scrap-
ings, and your kitchen or restaurant is probably
generating about a pound of food “waste” for every
person you serve.* Waste of any kind means lost
profits and opportunity, and that’s an expense we
can help you avoid while setting you up to be in
compliance with Act 148, Vermont’s universal recycling and composting law.
Starting in 2014, Act 148 bans food scraps from the
landfill, requiring them to be separated from trash on
the following schedule, depending on how much
you generate:
July 2014: 104 tons per year (10-12 68-gallon carts per week)
July 2015: 52 tons per year (5-6 carts per week)
July 2016: 18 tons per year (about 1 cart per week)
July 2020: All food scraps, including from households,
are banned from landfill disposal
Composting is one of several options.
Vermont’s “Food Recovery Hierarchy” (see graphic
below) shows ways to slash your landfill-bound trash
by applying the 3 R’s — Reduce, Reuse, Recycle — to
your food stream.
Vermont Food Recovery Hierarchy
Source Reduction
where this guide comes in. We’ll take you step-bystep through setting up and executing a successful
collection program. Your food scraps can then be
used for on-site gardens, donated to local farmers, or
will go to Green Mountain Compost in Williston to
become rich compost and other soil amendments.
See the resource list at the end of this guide for more info
about reducing waste and donating leftovers.
More bottom-line benefits:
• Up to two-thirds of what you’re throwing out with
your trash may be food scraps and compostable
paper. Donating and/or composting that material,
rather than sending it to the landfill, will save diesel
fuel, reduce air pollution and truck traffic, and
possibly reduce your trash service costs. The
landfill is 70 miles away; donation and composting
options are right here in Chittenden County.
• Food scraps take decades to break down in a
landfill, and in the process produce methane, a
greenhouse gas that’s 21 times more harmful to
our atmosphere than carbon dioxide.
• Studies show that letting your customers know
that you donate and/or compost your food scraps
can boost customer loyalty and employee morale.
Food for
People
Food for
Animals
Composting
& Anaerobic
Digestion
Energy
Recovery
Step 1: Reduce waste system-wide. Stop waste
where it happens: purchasing, prep, and service.
Step 2: Repurpose/reuse food and scraps. Donate
usable food to a food shelf, and scraps to farmers to
feed pigs and chickens.
Step 3: Recycle food and scraps as compost! That’s
*”Too Good To Waste,” 2010 Sustainable Restaurant
Association survey results of a cross-section of 10 London,
England restaurants averaging 145 to 3200 covers/week.
These carrots were buried in a landfill for ten years next
to newspapers that were still readable! At Green
Mountain Compost, food scraps become a valuable soil
amendment in just a few months.
Setting Up Your Program
1. Identify where you generate waste
• Prep stations — all food trimmings: peelings,
meat, dairy, fruits, and vegetables
•C
ooking — burned or mishandled food
•C
ooler — spoilage
• Buffets
— unrecoverable leftovers
•C
ustomers — scraps, leftovers, paper napkins
2. E
stimate average weekly volume. Typical
commercial trash cans range from 33 to 64
gallons, with the capacity often stamped on the
side or bottom. For one week, designate one or
two trash cans for food and soiled paper only, and
keep track of how many you fill.
number of carts and frequency of service. Since
food scraps will no longer be in your trash, you
may be able to reduce your trash dumpster size
and/or pickups after you see the results of separating compostables for a month.
5. Get free help: Collection buckets,
signage, and training. See the last page of
this guide for free resources CSWD can provide.
4. Set Up Your Kitchen Buckets
et staff suggestions for key spots where food
G
scrap collection buckets should be placed, as well
as locations for informational signs.
3. C
ontact your trash and recycling hauler
for a service estimate. Negotiate your
Food Service Compost Haulers
pickup schedule and fees with your waste hauler
before you launch your program. Haulers provide
32- or 68-gallon lidded, wheeled carts in your
outdoor trash/recycling area, with pickups one or
more times per week. Fees are based on the
Casella Resource Solutions: 802-864-3615
Gauthier Trucking: 802-879-4020
Kimbell Compost: 802-356-3573
Myers Container: 802-655-4312
“It’s a piece of cake.
Ensure Success!
Once we started, we couldn’t believe
we hadn’t been doing this before.”

— Best Western Windjammer
General Manager Dan Phelan
Get staff input
• Actively solicit staff suggestions at every step.
•
They’ll often see potential for improvements
that could save you time and money, and
they’ll feel more invested in the program.
Run through the system to address any food
safety or ergonomic issues.
• Make sure all employees understand the steps
and requirements.
• Include food scrap management training in all
new-employee orientations.

Set up a test run
• Start the program on slower shifts or with preconsumer food trimmings for the first few
months. Once that’s dialed in, add busy shifts
and leftovers from customers’ plates.
food scrap bins? If so, you must remove it
before the compost cart is picked up. Contaminated loads may be rejected by your hauler or
by Green Mountain Compost.


Announce and educate
• Is there any trash or recycling being put in the
Collect data
• Track the number of outside carts filled daily or
•
•
weekly so you know how much food you’re
keeping out of the trash.
Check your trash dumpster right before it’s
serviced. If it isn’t full, get a smaller dumpster or
reduce your service frequency!
Share data with staff and the hauler contract
negotiator so they understand the positive
impact they’re having on your waste stream.

Monitor and tweak the system
• Do bucket locations make sense? Are they
being emptied regularly?
See last page for FREE Resources
Free Resources
Help when and where you need it:
• Technical assistance and training
CSWD staff is available to help you plan a system that
will work for your business, from waste assessment to
collection to negotiating and managing pickup.
• Purchasing guidance
If you’re thinking of purchasing compostable food
serviceware, check with CSWD to make sure the
products deliver on your vendor’s claims and are
acceptable at Green Mountain Compost.
• Collection buckets and signage
CSWD can provide
labeled 4-gallon
buckets (shown here)
for kitchen scrap
collection, or just the
labels to use on
buckets you may
already have. Many
kitchens color-code
their buckets for
instant recognition.
• CSWD signs will quickly answer what can and can’t
Key Questions
• I s this okay with my Health Inspector?
Yes! Separating food scraps for compost pickup is
completely acceptable as long as you follow Health
Department waste management guidelines. See
the attached Fact Sheet for details.
If your inspector says your compost pickup is in
violation, please contact us at [email protected] or
802-872-8100 x237 with the details and we’ll help
you troubleshoot.
• H ow can I manage odors?
Properly managed, your food scrap collection area
will not smell worse than your normal trash.
Monitor your waste area and carts to make sure
they’re being maintained by your staff and your
waste hauler.
Inside, run collection buckets through your dishwasher or wash by hand at end of every shift.
Outside, add sawdust, lime or newspaper on
freshly added food scraps to suppress odors and
fruit flies.
go into the compost bin. We’ll provide a pdf file for
you to print, or up to three durable signs per site.
Food Waste Prevention
and Donation Resources
EPA.gov — Search “food waste prevention” to get
hands-on tips, waste calculators, audit logs and
many other useful tools for commercial kitchens.
restaurant.org — Search “food costs” for proven
money-saving ways to slash food waste.
vtfoodbank.org — Search “donate food” for local
contacts, tax benefits, and liability information.
Contact us to get started today!
802-872-8100 x 237 • [email protected]
www.cswd.net
1021 Redmond Rd., Williston, VT 05495
Printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper
12/13
What Goes Where In the Kitchen
Recycling
Must be empty and free of food
• Clean, uncoated paper
• Unwaxed/uncoated cardboard, clean pizza boxes
• Clean aluminum foil, cans, pie plates
• Empty metal food/drink cans, rinsed
• Empty metal spray-oil cans (such as Pam)
• Empty, rinsed plastic food and drink jugs, buckets and bottles
• Empty glass food and drink bottles and jars
Compostables
• ALL food & beverages, bones, peelings, seeds, rinds, etc.
• Coffee grounds & filters
• Tea bags
• Soups & sauces
• Dressings & condiments
• Cooking oils & grease in small amounts — must be cooled
• Food-soiled paper towels, napkins, tissue & newspaper
• Greasy take-out pizza boxes
• Paper egg cartons
• Uncoated paper bags & plates
• Wooden or bamboo utensils
• Certified compostable cups, plates, bowls,
takeout containers and utensils. Item or its
packaging MUST have this symbol
Trash
• Bottle caps
• Plastic bags, plastic wrap of any kind
• Waxed or coated paper
• Styrofoam
• Stickers & sticker backing
• Paper drink & soup cartons
• Butter foils & papers
• Sugar, salt & pepper packets
• Straws (unless certified compostable)
• Food service gloves & hairnets
Got a question about which container something should go in? Contact CSWD!
872-8111 • [email protected] or visit www.cswd.net