Congratulations on taking a closer look at composting food waste! The prospect of setting up an in-house composting program may seem daunting, but it doesn't have to be.
This guide was created to demystify the process of getting started and maintaining an in-house composting program with GoZERO. We will review the following themes:
LEADERSHIP – Who will champion and administrate the program initially and on an ongoing basis?
SCOPE – What will become the who, what, when, where, why, and how (WWWWW&H) of your location's tailored food waste composting program?
ENGAGEMENT – How will staff and patrons become and stay engaged in the program?
We hope this guide addresses the vast majority of concerns about an in-house food waste composting program. However, this is not an exhaustive guide for every possible issue. If additional questions, problems, or ideas come up, please be in touch. We'd love to help and learn right along with you!
We're excited to be part of the emerging community of practitioners who are composting food waste together. Thanks for taking the time to dispose of your food waste sustainably!
Gratefully yours,
David Andre
Executive Director
GoZERO Services, Food Waste Compost Courier
LEADERSHIP ( Question 1 of 3 )
Who will champion and administrate your in-house composting program on an ongoing basis? If you're an owner, manager, business operations leader, or other professional who already has a lot on your plate, it may be best to allocate this work to someone else.
We often find that a frontline staff member (or two) who is competent, works well with others, and, most importantly, wants to help with composting, is a great compost program leader. These are the people to whom you can delegate the rest of the execution and success of your composting program.
Try This:
Jot down 3-5 prospects for the compost captain and lieutenants.
Take a quick survey of your staff, asking something like the following, and see what kind of feedback you get. The survey can be informal, formal, part of a regular meeting, or baked into a routine communication.
What do you think about the ideas of composting (i.e., sending organics to be recycled)?
Can you imagine any problems and/or opportunities it would create?
Can you help organize and manage such a program?
Secure 1 - 3 composting program leaders to spearhead the program.
OUTCOMES
Get a general sense of how staff feel about composting. Bake in passionate (positive or negative) feedback and personnel into the program. Surprisingly, naysayers who are looped in to help address their concerns can become the strongest advocates, and even if there is some negative feedback, keep the program straightforward. Setting personnel up for success typically works. Ask for success stories from other locations if there are many concerns.
SCOPE ( Question 2 of 3 )
What will become the who, what, when, where, why, and how (WWWWW&H) of your location's tailored food waste composting program? Food waste composting can be extremely simple or highly complex, depending on the intended outcomes and how it's set up within a location's operations.
Who will Compost
Most of the complexity of an in-house food waste composting program is determined by who will be doing the composting. There are generally two types of programs along these lines, "back of house" and "front of house."
Back-of-house (i.e., service staff only) programs are much easier to manage because training and access are limited to a finite number of personnel.
Front-of-house (i.e., general public) programs tend to create a more substantial positive halo effect because the public can engage with actual food waste compost receptacles.
Determining who will be composting—service staff, the general population, subgroups of either, or some combination of these — will set the stage for much of your in-house food waste composting program's development.
What is to be Composted
GoZERO can dispose of the broadest range of compostable materials. However, it's best to start with a specific focus to learn what works in your organization before going too broad.
Especially for front-of-house, the general population, and programs, consider converting some or all disposable serviceware to ASTM D6400-compliant, BPI-certified compostable items. There is typically an increased cost, but the trade-off is greater ease of use, greater program adoption, and a lower risk of non-compostable contamination in food waste compost receptacles. Saran wrap, condiment packets, and other incidental non-compostable items, retained in service when establishing a program, pose the greatest contamination risk.
See the complete list of accepted and prohibited items.
Read more about ASTM D6400-compliant, BPI-certified compostable items.
When to Compost
Ideally, composting should be included as part of an operation's day-to-day routine. However, sometimes budgets or other concerns are constraining, and it may be best to compost as part of a special event to test how it goes, both operationally and from a public appeal perspective.
It's common for an organization to discover that there is a lot of positive buzz generated for relatively little effort when hosting a zero-waste event, including composting, as a means of testing the concept.
Where to Compost
An in-house food waste compost receptacle is a place where compostable items are separated from other recycling and landfill items and collected. They're made up of a container, signage, appropriate equipment, and a routine in-house servicing workflow plan.
Food waste compost receptacles should typically be co-located with existing recycling and landfill receptacles to discourage placing the wrong item in the wrong receptacle. However, not every existing recycling or landfill receptacle should necessarily have a food waste compost receptacle added. Below are listed a few locations where food waste compost receptacles are commonly placed.
kitchen food prep stations, back of house
dishwashing plate scrape stations, back of house
dining room self-serve waste receptacles, front of house
break room waste receptacles, front of house
restroom paper towel receptacles, front of house
It's also typically helpful to map and/or list the locations and numbers of food waste compost receptacles for planning purposes. Program communications, equipment, and operations are built on this backbone.
Why Compost
Before beginning any effort, it's critical to define the end goal. If it hasn't already been established, determining the desired outcomes for a location's in-house food waste composting program is a good first step in scoping a plan.
Desired outcomes can be purely altruistic, such as being the ones who "do the right thing," or include more business-minded objectives, such as "establishing a competitive advantage through operational bragging rights." Composting is typically not less expensive than landfilling, but it does create a strong engagement platform among staff and patrons.
How to Compost
Assuming someone will be hired to haul away food waste for composting elsewhere (i.e., a food waste compost courier service), there are three primary aspects you need to plan for. Starting with smaller, more concrete elements may be helpful.
Individual Food Waste Compost Receptacles
Ongoing Management
Initial Implementation
Use the acronym C.E.O. (i.e., communications, equipment, & operations) to compost "like a boss" and think through these elements to plan the above.
Improve program adoption by framing communication around the A.D.K.A.R. (awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement) model.
1. Individual Food Waste Compost Receptacles –
Define a plan for communication, equipment, and operations (C.E.O.) for each receptacle.
COMMUNICATION
Plan communication that clearly conveys WWWWW&H using the steps below. Usually, signage is appropriate, but sometimes, posting a person is needed at events.
Awareness – What is the receptacle for, and what broader program is it a part of?
Desire – Why is the program important, and what's in it for the individual?
Knowledge – What needs to be done immediately and overall to reach intermediate and ultimate goals?
Ability – How to properly participate in a given moment and in the broader program?
Reinforcement – What is the commitment of the program organizers, and how to practice building the intended healthy habits?
EQUIPMENT
Set participants up for success. If it's not straightforward, getting people to participate will be difficult.
Signage – Food waste compost receptacle communication is typically most effective when simple, color-coded, displaying examples of actual items accepted, and framed around the above A.D.K.A.R. concepts.
Receptacle Type – Form follows function. Determine what the receptacle needs to do and plan accordingly. For example, it may need to fit in a tight space, hold a lot or just a very little material, or be easily and routinely emptied.
Keep in mind not only the ease of use when putting material into the food waste compost receptacle, but also the ease and frequency of emptying. If a container is too big and the material is too heavy, it may become unmanageable. However, if the container is too small, it may fill up too fast and present other issues.
Compostable Liners – If larger than a mixing bowl and can be cleaned easily and routinely, it is strongly recommended that food waste receptacles be lined with a BPI-certified, ASTM D6400-compliant compostable liner to facilitate program adoption and ease of use, despite the additional cost.
Recommendations can be made if existing suppliers do not carry liners.
If concerns are raised relating to the use of compostable liners, consider: 1) Food waste is one of the most troublesome components of typical waste, and if landfill and recycling items are bagged, how much more appropriate is it that compostable items also be bagged? 2) Compostable liners are commonly the single most significant factor in causing commercial composting programs to become an easily implemented routine, along with other existing workflows.
As a backup, if compostable liners are cost-prohibitive, it may be possible to use traditional plastic liners in-house and then direct staff to empty them into service containers before landfilling. Training, contamination, adoption, etc, all become greater issues if traditional plastic liners are used in-house.
Trash Grabbers – Traditionally used for litter cleanup with a trigger at one end and pinchers on the other, trash grabbers give program participants the tool they need to remove a non-compostable item from the composting receptacle as soon as they see it.
With trash grabbers, it's possible to communicate that if there is a non-compostable item in the food waste composting receptacle, pull it out and put it where it belongs. Without trash grabbers, the only option is to reach into the receptacle with one's hands to retrieve non-compostable items, which few people are likely to do.
Trash grabbers can typically be added to back-of-house, service-staff-only, and food-waste compost receptacles, with instructions to remove contamination noted without much effort. Making trash grabbers available at the front of house for the general public may require additional instruction and/or oversight.
OPERATION
It will be helpful to think through ongoing management moments listed in the next section as they relate to individual food waste compost receptacles. It doesn't have to be complicated. Setting participants up for success is the goal, and including them in the process usually pays dividends.
2. Ongoing Management –
Over time, doing the individual activities that make up a food waste composting program will become second nature, and the finer points of what to do in this situation or that will become clearer. Use the operational moments below as a starting point for describing how food waste composting works.
Disposal: What does it look like when someone puts something in the food waste compost receptacle? WWWWW&H?
Decontamination: What should someone do if they see a non-compostable item in the food waste compost receptacle? For example, remove it with trash grabbers and document it.
Collection: At what interval are food waste compost receptacles checked for contamination, emptied, cleaned if need be, and reset? How is material moved to the collection containers outside? If the receptacle becomes full between intervals, what should be done?
Issue Resolution: If there is a question or a problem, what should be done? Who should be contacted?
Program Change: If any aspect of the program needs to change or isn't working as well as it could, what should be done? Who should be contacted?
Incidental Communication: What qualifies as appropriate for incidental program-related communication? There may be upward or downward communication, one-to-many or many-to-one communication, and needs through any number of channels or methods.
Routine Communication: What qualifies as appropriate for routine types of program-related communication? There may be upward or downward communication, one-to-many or many-to-one communication, and needs communicated through any number of channels or methods.
3. Initial Implementation –
Nobody knows how to make a change to how you do what you do, like you, the people doing the work today.
Answer the who, what, when, where, and why questions in this guide and use this section to define the how before starting. Define the activities that need to be completed, who will do them, and create a calendar schedule to execute against.
It may be a good idea to start with one part of the program you'd ultimately like to implement. Rolling out a program in phases where learning and adjustment can be done a little at a time, rather than all at once, usually works best.
COMMUNICATION
Pre-Launch communication: How will you introduce the program and prepare participants to be ready for launch?
Launch: How will you install the needed awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement (A.D.K.A.R.) in training participants?
Incidental Ongoing communication: What events or needs will trigger communication about what topics in which channels once the program is up and running? E.g., a recurring question needs to be addressed, retraining is required to reduce contamination, or the program itself needs to be modified, and communication about the change is needed.
Routine Ongoing communication: What routine communications are planned? E.g., monthly vital statistics or weekly status reports
EQUIPMENT
Initial Purchases: What items are needed before kickoff? Typically, receptacle containers, liners, trash grabbers, signage, and any training material are required.
Ongoing Supply Management: What's the process for identification of a need, procurement, and deployment of needed equipment and supplies? Often, existing processes can be extended to composting-related items.
OPERATIONS
Think through the ongoing operational moments below, what standard operating procedures should be in place, and how to train, retrain, and onboard new participants.
THINGS TO DO
Define the who, what, when, where, why, and how for your location's tailored food waste composting program—starting with why may help.
When planning how you will compost, focus on communications, equipment, & operations (C.E.O.) to compost "like a boss" built around 1) individual food waste compost receptacles, 2) ongoing management, and 3) initial implementation.
When planning communication, address awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement (A.D.K.A.R.) to improve program adoption.
OUTCOMES
Have a thoughtful plan that takes into consideration what is typically needed to get started composting.
ENGAGEMENT ( Question 3 of 3 )
How will staff and patrons become and stay engaged in the program?
Food waste composting is typically a top-line engagement opportunity rather than a bottom-line cost-savings solution. Individuals and organizations are always on the lookout for ways to grow and improve, and without intentionally planning an engagement strategy, staff and patrons may respond to food waste composting programs. However, planning to make the most of the halo effect around food waste reduction is always recommended.
The cost-benefit of food waste-related programming is often best considered from PR, HR, sustainability, marketing, and/or advertising perspectives in addition to operations and budgeting. Integrated, sustainably focused, and relatively easy to implement programs that have the potential to deliver the type of upside results a food waste composting program can generate are hard to come by.
Making sure to brag and become an expert about your food waste composting program is something only you can do. Breaking it down into easy-to-execute activities that build over time, like an advertising campaign or company expansion, is most successful.
Whatever you do, have a plan for talking about your program, and don't let it become a burden. You'll be surprised at the positive responses you'll get.
THINGS TO DO
Plan how and when you will communicate about your food waste composting program, initially and ongoing. Will you include elements like personal stories, big-picture facts, and/or program-specific statistics?
OUTCOMES
Have an engagement plan for your food waste composting program that creates a halo effect among your staff and patrons.
