The Partial Observer by Maureen Murray

The Challenge of Compostables

Here I am, mother of the groom for the third time. And delighted to launch this youngest of my three sons and support the union with his intelligent, beautiful, charming, and kind wife-to-be.

Serving in the traditional role of the groom’s family, I hosted an “open house welcome” at my home for the invited guests—about 140—the night before the wedding.

I care deeply about the environment and so I explored the use of compostable plates, napkins, forks and cups for the delicious dinner I had planned. I could have rented forks and ceramic plates, cloth napkins, and glass items, but this would have added rental costs, and fees for wait staff to collect, wash, and return the items.

The story that follows is my journey to make what I believe to be a good decision to protect the environment, and the challenges I faced seeing the project through, responsibly.

Step number one was to shop for compostable materials. For about $226.00, I purchased 8-inch plates, forks, napkins and cups from Green Paper Products, a small business based in Cleveland, Ohio. According to the website, their “compostable and recyclable tableware are made from renewable plant-based or recycled materials—so every cup, plate and bag helps reduce waste and support a healthier planet.”

The forks were made from bamboo, the plates from natural fiber, the cups from corn plastic, and the paper napkins—well—from paper. These items are made in the U.S. and shipped carbon neutral.

I like to think of myself as a smart consumer, so I read the details of the product specifications. For every single item I purchased, the fine print read “compostable in a commercial composting facility.” Well, I thought, that’s certainly not going to work in my back yard compost pile.

That brings me to step number two: finding a commercial composting facility in my community. I remained confident and committed to my search.

I called a good friend, Padraic MacLeish, director of operations for The Clark Foundation, to ask him if he knew any local commercial composting facilities. The Clark Foundation operates a private forced-air composting system at Mohican Farm and only accepts food waste from a small group of partner organizations, including The Otesaga Resort Hotel, Clara Welch Thanksgiving Home, and Cooperstown Elementary School.

“Even the composting system at Mohican is only able to break down limited amounts of ‘compostable’ plates and other items like this if they are mixed with lots of other, more easily composted, materials,” MacLeish said. “Even then our material goes through a prolonged aging process after the initial compost ‘cook’ and some material will get screened out and put back in at the beginning of the process to try again.”

He allowed that “there are some pretty advanced composting ‘digester’ systems out there that are able to process this stuff in a timely fashion, but I’m not aware of any locally. Unfortunately, the same attributes that make something a good plate or cup or fork also make them hard to break down.”

My dear friend was unable to tell me of any other commercial composting facility that I could contact.

The Otsego County Solid Waste Department staff were very supportive of my effort but dismayed to tell me that there is not a commercial composting facility in our region. They told me I could bring household kitchen food waste, but not compostable dishware, to the Oneonta Southern Transfer Station, where operations are subbed out to Casella Waste Systems. The Southern Transfer station will accept up to six gallons of food scraps for a $1.00 fee. But my compostable dishware would not be welcome.

I asked the folks at the Southern Transfer Station where the deposited compost from Otsego County residents goes. Back in the late summer, the staff there did not do any compost processing. It was transferred to Seward Sand and Gravel outside of Oneonta, where Rob Beisler is in charge. When I called Beisler about my plan, he was pretty pessimistic about taking my food waste and the compostable material. It takes compostable materials a long time to really break down and often needs re-doing, he explained. This echoed the information from my friend, Padraic.

“Rob, I’m doing the right thing here!” I pleaded.

By the time our conversation ended, he had reluctantly agreed.

I couldn’t bring the compostables and food waste to his site in the back of my car in bags, though. I would have to rent a dumpster from a vendor that knew how to transport compost to his site. Okay, I thought, I have rented a dumpster before for garage cleaning projects, so that might work.

As the date of the wedding party drew near, Beisler and Seward Sand and Gravel were my only hope. I called him again to get the details of how I would organize the dumpster delivery to him. Beisler uses Casella Waste Systems, based in Rutland, Vermont, to bring materials to his composter.

Okay, I thought, we are close to the end of this journey. I looked up Casella Waste Systems. Their website says, “We create value by managing society’s waste and transforming that waste into new resources.” I called them and talked to a very supportive staff person who told me I could rent a dumpster for my compostables and have it brought to Seward. I affirmed that I did not need the dumpster for any period of time. I would “greet” the dumpster as it arrived by truck in my driveway. No need, I said, to unload the dumpster. Just drive into my driveway, and I will throw the bags of compost onto the dumpster and the truck with dumpster could drive away.

The Casella staff member tried to keep my spirits up, but they were promptly trashed. First, I would need a special type of dumpster—one that didn’t leak on the roads. The cost was several hundred dollars, mostly because of the uniqueness of my need. Given my budget, this would not work.

Madeleine Zenir to the rescue—or close to the rescue. Zenir, a young and intelligent entrepreneur, started a business that collected kitchen waste from Cooperstown doorways. Later she sponsored a compost bin at the Cooperstown Farmers’ Market for market goers and others to deposit their household compost. Because she was folding her business, she was unable to take my material.

Zenir connected me with the folks at Worms Waste Not LLC, an Oneonta-based business created and run by partners Meghan Cassidy and Rachel Frick Cardelle. Their website reports, “Our goal is to reduce landfill while helping turn food scraps into black soil gold that supports our local farming and gardening communities. In our commitment to sustainability, let us handle your compost, reduce your waste, and nourish the earth—making Oneonta greener, one pickup at a time.”

When I contacted WWN to see if they could help me out with my compostable materials, they were supportive. “First of all, thank you so much for pursuing this!” and then, perhaps predictably, “It depends.”

They asked me to send a link to the products I had purchased to review what they were made of. At first they were a bit hesitant, because the farm where they take their food scraps, Two Fox Farm in Hartwick, can only manage a very minimal amount of some types of compostable materials. However, one of the WWN owners was already planning a trip out of town to an area with a commercial composting facility. “Great news!” they replied, much to my delight and amazement. “We will be working with a commercial composting facility to make sure we can compost all the items for your event. “You won’t have to worry about separating out food scraps and dining wear; they can all go in the same bin.”

They offered 13-gallon bins in either white, black or grey—with their handsome “Worms Waste Not” logo branding. The bins are roughly the same size as typical kitchen trash bins, and they blended seamlessly in my party space. Worms Waste Not would drop off the bins pre-event and pick up post-event at my convenience for a fee of $50.00 per bin.

Finally, I was cooking with gas—or maybe compost.

I learned a few things along the way. If you opt not to use real dishware, choose your compostables carefully. Know that you won’t be able to use your back yard compost pile for the compostables. If you dispose of compostables in the trash, they will end up in a landfill, increasing greenhouse gas emissions, wasting resources, and taking up valuable space in landfills. If you put compostables in a recycling bin, the result is a contaminated recycling stream, which will likely end up in a landfill. Know that you will need to find a way to send your compostables—directly or indirectly—to a commercial composting facility.

And while I got lucky that WWN could address my needs for this event, they explained that they are not set up to always take compostables, as the commercial composting facility is too far to make it feasible on a regular basis.

The party was terrific—as was the lovely wedding the next day—and I felt good about my environment-friendly choices. Sticking to them was a long and interesting journey, but I am glad I did it. I am writing this for anyone who wishes to do something similar and is looking for access to an appropriate composting facility.

Next project: community effort to get a commercial composting facility in Otsego County for public disposal of compostables.

Maureen Murray is a member of the Cooperstown Food Pantry Board of Directors.