[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
our lives are filled with stories
stories of magic mystery and melancholy
but tonight you will hear a story unlike
any story you’ve ever heard before it’s
a story about composting I hope by the
end of my talk you will realize there is
so much right about my story it’s a
story about growth a story about
perseverance a story about the triumph
of good over bureaucracy and a story
about love for one’s home and community
one small idea kept growing I simply
made choices based on what I wanted for
myself and my community yet I am humbled
by the ways my story has resonated no
one can do everything but everyone can
do something little things add up and
become big things sometimes right before
your eyes
so although this is a story about
composting it started with my home my
Haven my love of organic food led me to
gardening wanting to get closer to my
food I kept expanding could I can the
tomatoes and make my own sauce the
answer is yes
when I learned about colony collapse
disorder I became a beekeeper then I
added chickens that organic garden I now
grow a little bit of everything
garlic kale tomatoes figs you name it
over 40 crops this past year my 92 year
old neighbor asks how’s your farm except
that the entire lot is less than 1/10 of
an acre and less than 21 feet wide this
past season I donated over a hundred
pounds of food shared with neighbors and
kept plenty to feed my family I doubt
that would have happened without the
benefit of compost backyard composting
was always part of the garden but when I
learned of a master compost class I
signed up the day registration opened
participants had to do 6 hours of
volunteer work mostly sitting at events
I wanted to do something that had a
little more impact but what the borough
of Westchester is 1.8 square miles and
home to about 18,000 residents and
another 17,000 University students
so I started pestering the borough
sustainability coordinator Megan Fogarty
about some kind of compost project we
began talking and started to talk about
community compost bins but then one
night as we drank more wine the ideas
kept getting bigger we talked long term
wouldn’t it be great to establish a
curbside residential food scraps
collection program but how to get there
we hatched an idea for a pilot program
to gather baseline data starting with
restaurants made sense because we could
gap sure more volume with fewer
participants so here’s the reality about
food waste 40% of food produced in the
u.s. goes to waste and 95 percent of
that ends up in a landfill imagine 60
million tons of produce worth 160
billion dollars getting trashed
food scraps are heavy they weigh seven
and a half pounds per gallon and organic
material is the number one type sent to
landfills that food is rotting which
releases methane gas a greenhouse gas 25
percent more potent than carbon dioxide
I probably ought to mention there was a
snafu or two I learned of a grant funded
by the Environmental Protection Agency
the EPA that required applications to
come through educational institutions or
nonprofits I am a communication studies
professor at wcu West Chester University
but by the time I learned about the
grant I only had three weeks to write
the grant prepare the budget get all the
university approvals and get committed
participants the university wasn’t even
going to let me apply simply not enough
time I was not to be deterred luckily I
won over the grant specialist and she
went to bat for me while prepping the
budget I learned that the company that
could haul the scraps for us was going
to charge us more than the entire amount
of grant money available it almost
killed the project
Megan suggested investigating whether
the borough could serve as the hauler
they weren’t looking to make a profit so
if we could show our project would be
cost neutral we might be able to
convince her boss and Borough Council to
let us use their trucks and workers for
our little project brilliant
next I had to focus on getting three
participants the number one thing that I
hear is how is a communication studies
professor behind a project like this I
should be a microbiologist but the truth
is this project is all about
communication and collaboration getting
the right people talking with one
another curbing fears and being a
cheerleader were essential I mean most
people understand compost it can be as
simple as leaving a pile of organic
material that eventually decomposes
that’s not hard to understand what is
hard to understand is composting on a
large scale how all the pieces
fit together plus most people don’t
realize the environmental economic and
social justice benefits associated with
composting compost is known as black
gold because it is excellent soil
amendment it reduces the need for
watering pesticides and petroleum-based
chemical fertilizers in fact one cubic
yard of good quality compost has the
same nutrients as one hundred fifty
dollars of chemical fertilizers those
nutrients released slowly which help
reduces harmful agricultural runoff
compost builds soil structure and it
closes an important loop what leaves the
restaurants as waste returns as food I
also learned a best practice was making
it easy to say yes and make it hard to
say no we walked through a lot of
restaurant kitchens and dining rooms and
offered to tailor our program to each
participant so the first proposal would
be to use a small medium and large
restaurant that would divert their food
scraps for six months how did we make it
easy for them it was free to participate
we provided them with free bins free
training for the staff free signage free
promotional materials pickups would be
twice a week on a regular schedule we
educated them how to negotiate a reduced
trash bill so they might even save money
the Burrow even cleans the bins for them
we wanted them to know we wanted the
project to succeed three restaurants did
agree to participate we submitted the
grant on time and were awarded the grant
about $15,000 which is not a lot of
money but it was enough to get the ball
rolling then we hit another monumental
snafu the Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Protection the DEP
requires facilities have permit to
accept outside food scraps they denied
the farm where we were going to take our
materials a short-term permit so the
farm would have to go through the full
application process which in this region
takes two years or more so now we had
the money we have the purchase
pence and we had no place to take the
material did I mention I was not to be
deterred
we found a permitted facility and
persuaded them to take the materials the
results we diverted over 44 tons of food
from the landfill in terms of greenhouse
gas emissions that’s like taking 202
cars off the road for a year one
participant reduced their trash by 60%
little things really did add up but I
still wanted to do more Megan got a
separate grant to hire a consultant to
investigate a permanent compost program
for the borough and they basically said
we needed more data so back to the
proverbial drawing board the EPA put out
another call for another grant I needed
to show we were working toward a
sustainable program since after all it’s
not sustainable to have a grant paying
for everything so this proposal included
10 participants that would divert their
food scraps for 12 months much of the
setup was the same however with the
first pilot borough staff had manually
lift those heavy scraps into the dump
truck which is not very efficient so
this time we proposed using larger bins
that would require the purchase of a
mechanical tipping arm decreasing labor
and increasing efficiency the borough
invested some of its own money and each
participant paid $600 this time they had
to clean their own bins or purchase
compostable liners at their own expense
we were awarded the grant this time
project costs were nearly $21,000 and
the grant award was a little under
thirteen thousand everyone was putting
their money where their mouth was the
EPA came to wcu during national America
Recycles day to publicly recognize the
project and the participants so here’s
something else I learned for that first
pilot I dutifully sent out press
releases and basically got zero zilch
response however after the EPA ceremony
suddenly there were invitations for
newspaper and radio interviews the
project was starting to get legs of its
we finished our 12 months of collection
and I’m happy to say we diverted nearly
360 tons of food from the landfill
assuming the average person consumes 8
pounds of food and beverage per day
that’s like having enough provisions to
take 250 adults on a year-long cruise
we’ve outgrown our current methods to
continue we’ll need to work with the
professional hauler increase
participation and find a larger compost
facility stay tuned
however my story doesn’t end there
because there was a second part to that
second grant since starting this project
I learned about the food recovery
hierarchy where as you can see that
composting is preferred over sending
food to a landfill
there are even better ways to avoid
wasting food that have an even greater
impact food insecurity is a real problem
for 49 million Americans despite the
fact that Chester County residents are
the healthiest wealthiest and best
educated in the state of Pennsylvania
the stats of food insecurity hit home
these are our friends and my university
students st. agnus day room serves 80
people daily safe harbors community
lunch program serves 46 thousand meals a
year nearly 2,000 people each month
receive assistance from the West Chester
food cupboard and WCU’s resource pantry
is now assisting nearly 70 students a
month
here’s that real social justice impact
according to a study by Duke University
lack of knowledge is the main reason
restaurants and other organizations
don’t donate food they simply aren’t
aware they aren’t aware of the federal
Good Samaritan food donation act that
protects donors and recipients ease
against food donated in good faith
against any liability accepting only
gross negligence and in intentional
misconduct Pennsylvania provides even
further protection with the donated food
limited liability act if nothing else
restaurants don’t realize they can take
a tax deduction for the cost of their
donated food I would be remiss if I
didn’t say that all consumers of food
that’s all of us our best serve simply
to avoid wasting food in the first place
that is the most preferred method of
food recovery we’re getting ready to
launch a campaign to educate resident
residents and restaurants and by the end
I pledged we would have at least two
restaurants donating at least one food
item at least once a week which is a
modest goal to be sure but small things
have a way of growing I talked earlier
about making it easy to say yes and
making it hard to say no and the wcu
students are key to this they helped
design the education materials they
reached out to the agencies they will be
pounding the pavement to educate
restaurants about food recovery and
asked them to participate in food
donation even better they will pick up
the donated food and deliver it to
illustrate we had our first donation the
university president every year hosts an
annual welcome back event with a catered
campus picnic this year sustainability
was a theme and president fiorentino
asked me to speak about my project to
show support for food recovery wcu and
our food service provider aramark agreed
to donate the leftovers we ended up
taking over 80 pounds of food to safe
harbor it was a good first effort I know
that I’m intense and when I get into
something I really get into it that’s
not for everyone however we all consume
food and wasted food is a serious
problem so what can you do that’s the
beauty you can do as much or as little
as you want
give your patronage to establishments
that support some type of food recovery
want to do a little more rethink
leftovers still looking for ideas
organize your fridge become a mindful
food shopper start composting be sure to
follow backyard recommendations lest you
attract some unwanted visitor
don’t have space try a worm bin I would
love to talk about vermicompost abut I
guess that will have to be another TED
talk can’t wait go to worm poop comm I’m
not kidding
it’s one thing to have an idea my story
started out small suffice it to say I
put in well over my six volunteer hours
yet I marvel at how my story has evolved
and seems to be inspiring others that
gives me great pleasure so don’t worry
about trying to do everything but
everyone can do something what will you
do
[Applause]
you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
our lives are filled with stories
stories of magic mystery and melancholy
but tonight you will hear a story unlike
any story you’ve ever heard before it’s
a story about composting I hope by the
end of my talk you will realize there is
so much right about my story it’s a
story about growth a story about
perseverance a story about the triumph
of good over bureaucracy and a story
about love for one’s home and community
one small idea kept growing I simply
made choices based on what I wanted for
myself and my community yet I am humbled
by the ways my story has resonated no
one can do everything but everyone can
do something little things add up and
become big things sometimes right before
your eyes
so although this is a story about
composting it started with my home my
Haven my love of organic food led me to
gardening wanting to get closer to my
food I kept expanding could I can the
tomatoes and make my own sauce the
answer is yes
when I learned about colony collapse
disorder I became a beekeeper then I
added chickens that organic garden I now
grow a little bit of everything
garlic kale tomatoes figs you name it
over 40 crops this past year my 92 year
old neighbor asks how’s your farm except
that the entire lot is less than 1/10 of
an acre and less than 21 feet wide this
past season I donated over a hundred
pounds of food shared with neighbors and
kept plenty to feed my family I doubt
that would have happened without the
benefit of compost backyard composting
was always part of the garden but when I
learned of a master compost class I
signed up the day registration opened
participants had to do 6 hours of
volunteer work mostly sitting at events
I wanted to do something that had a
little more impact but what the borough
of Westchester is 1.8 square miles and
home to about 18,000 residents and
another 17,000 University students
so I started pestering the borough
sustainability coordinator Megan Fogarty
about some kind of compost project we
began talking and started to talk about
community compost bins but then one
night as we drank more wine the ideas
kept getting bigger we talked long term
wouldn’t it be great to establish a
curbside residential food scraps
collection program but how to get there
we hatched an idea for a pilot program
to gather baseline data starting with
restaurants made sense because we could
gap sure more volume with fewer
participants so here’s the reality about
food waste 40% of food produced in the
u.s. goes to waste and 95 percent of
that ends up in a landfill imagine 60
million tons of produce worth 160
billion dollars getting trashed
food scraps are heavy they weigh seven
and a half pounds per gallon and organic
material is the number one type sent to
landfills that food is rotting which
releases methane gas a greenhouse gas 25
percent more potent than carbon dioxide
I probably ought to mention there was a
snafu or two I learned of a grant funded
by the Environmental Protection Agency
the EPA that required applications to
come through educational institutions or
nonprofits I am a communication studies
professor at wcu West Chester University
but by the time I learned about the
grant I only had three weeks to write
the grant prepare the budget get all the
university approvals and get committed
participants the university wasn’t even
going to let me apply simply not enough
time I was not to be deterred luckily I
won over the grant specialist and she
went to bat for me while prepping the
budget I learned that the company that
could haul the scraps for us was going
to charge us more than the entire amount
of grant money available it almost
killed the project
Megan suggested investigating whether
the borough could serve as the hauler
they weren’t looking to make a profit so
if we could show our project would be
cost neutral we might be able to
convince her boss and Borough Council to
let us use their trucks and workers for
our little project brilliant
next I had to focus on getting three
participants the number one thing that I
hear is how is a communication studies
professor behind a project like this I
should be a microbiologist but the truth
is this project is all about
communication and collaboration getting
the right people talking with one
another curbing fears and being a
cheerleader were essential I mean most
people understand compost it can be as
simple as leaving a pile of organic
material that eventually decomposes
that’s not hard to understand what is
hard to understand is composting on a
large scale how all the pieces
fit together plus most people don’t
realize the environmental economic and
social justice benefits associated with
composting compost is known as black
gold because it is excellent soil
amendment it reduces the need for
watering pesticides and petroleum-based
chemical fertilizers in fact one cubic
yard of good quality compost has the
same nutrients as one hundred fifty
dollars of chemical fertilizers those
nutrients released slowly which help
reduces harmful agricultural runoff
compost builds soil structure and it
closes an important loop what leaves the
restaurants as waste returns as food I
also learned a best practice was making
it easy to say yes and make it hard to
say no we walked through a lot of
restaurant kitchens and dining rooms and
offered to tailor our program to each
participant so the first proposal would
be to use a small medium and large
restaurant that would divert their food
scraps for six months how did we make it
easy for them it was free to participate
we provided them with free bins free
training for the staff free signage free
promotional materials pickups would be
twice a week on a regular schedule we
educated them how to negotiate a reduced
trash bill so they might even save money
the Burrow even cleans the bins for them
we wanted them to know we wanted the
project to succeed three restaurants did
agree to participate we submitted the
grant on time and were awarded the grant
about $15,000 which is not a lot of
money but it was enough to get the ball
rolling then we hit another monumental
snafu the Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Protection the DEP
requires facilities have permit to
accept outside food scraps they denied
the farm where we were going to take our
materials a short-term permit so the
farm would have to go through the full
application process which in this region
takes two years or more so now we had
the money we have the purchase
pence and we had no place to take the
material did I mention I was not to be
deterred
we found a permitted facility and
persuaded them to take the materials the
results we diverted over 44 tons of food
from the landfill in terms of greenhouse
gas emissions that’s like taking 202
cars off the road for a year one
participant reduced their trash by 60%
little things really did add up but I
still wanted to do more Megan got a
separate grant to hire a consultant to
investigate a permanent compost program
for the borough and they basically said
we needed more data so back to the
proverbial drawing board the EPA put out
another call for another grant I needed
to show we were working toward a
sustainable program since after all it’s
not sustainable to have a grant paying
for everything so this proposal included
10 participants that would divert their
food scraps for 12 months much of the
setup was the same however with the
first pilot borough staff had manually
lift those heavy scraps into the dump
truck which is not very efficient so
this time we proposed using larger bins
that would require the purchase of a
mechanical tipping arm decreasing labor
and increasing efficiency the borough
invested some of its own money and each
participant paid $600 this time they had
to clean their own bins or purchase
compostable liners at their own expense
we were awarded the grant this time
project costs were nearly $21,000 and
the grant award was a little under
thirteen thousand everyone was putting
their money where their mouth was the
EPA came to wcu during national America
Recycles day to publicly recognize the
project and the participants so here’s
something else I learned for that first
pilot I dutifully sent out press
releases and basically got zero zilch
response however after the EPA ceremony
suddenly there were invitations for
newspaper and radio interviews the
project was starting to get legs of its
we finished our 12 months of collection
and I’m happy to say we diverted nearly
360 tons of food from the landfill
assuming the average person consumes 8
pounds of food and beverage per day
that’s like having enough provisions to
take 250 adults on a year-long cruise
we’ve outgrown our current methods to
continue we’ll need to work with the
professional hauler increase
participation and find a larger compost
facility stay tuned
however my story doesn’t end there
because there was a second part to that
second grant since starting this project
I learned about the food recovery
hierarchy where as you can see that
composting is preferred over sending
food to a landfill
there are even better ways to avoid
wasting food that have an even greater
impact food insecurity is a real problem
for 49 million Americans despite the
fact that Chester County residents are
the healthiest wealthiest and best
educated in the state of Pennsylvania
the stats of food insecurity hit home
these are our friends and my university
students st. agnus day room serves 80
people daily safe harbors community
lunch program serves 46 thousand meals a
year nearly 2,000 people each month
receive assistance from the West Chester
food cupboard and WCU’s resource pantry
is now assisting nearly 70 students a
month
here’s that real social justice impact
according to a study by Duke University
lack of knowledge is the main reason
restaurants and other organizations
don’t donate food they simply aren’t
aware they aren’t aware of the federal
Good Samaritan food donation act that
protects donors and recipients ease
against food donated in good faith
against any liability accepting only
gross negligence and in intentional
misconduct Pennsylvania provides even
further protection with the donated food
limited liability act if nothing else
restaurants don’t realize they can take
a tax deduction for the cost of their
donated food I would be remiss if I
didn’t say that all consumers of food
that’s all of us our best serve simply
to avoid wasting food in the first place
that is the most preferred method of
food recovery we’re getting ready to
launch a campaign to educate resident
residents and restaurants and by the end
I pledged we would have at least two
restaurants donating at least one food
item at least once a week which is a
modest goal to be sure but small things
have a way of growing I talked earlier
about making it easy to say yes and
making it hard to say no and the wcu
students are key to this they helped
design the education materials they
reached out to the agencies they will be
pounding the pavement to educate
restaurants about food recovery and
asked them to participate in food
donation even better they will pick up
the donated food and deliver it to
illustrate we had our first donation the
university president every year hosts an
annual welcome back event with a catered
campus picnic this year sustainability
was a theme and president fiorentino
asked me to speak about my project to
show support for food recovery wcu and
our food service provider aramark agreed
to donate the leftovers we ended up
taking over 80 pounds of food to safe
harbor it was a good first effort I know
that I’m intense and when I get into
something I really get into it that’s
not for everyone however we all consume
food and wasted food is a serious
problem so what can you do that’s the
beauty you can do as much or as little
as you want
give your patronage to establishments
that support some type of food recovery
want to do a little more rethink
leftovers still looking for ideas
organize your fridge become a mindful
food shopper start composting be sure to
follow backyard recommendations lest you
attract some unwanted visitor
don’t have space try a worm bin I would
love to talk about vermicompost abut I
guess that will have to be another TED
talk can’t wait go to worm poop comm I’m
not kidding
it’s one thing to have an idea my story
started out small suffice it to say I
put in well over my six volunteer hours
yet I marvel at how my story has evolved
and seems to be inspiring others that
gives me great pleasure so don’t worry
about trying to do everything but
everyone can do something what will you
do
[Applause]
you
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