From kitchen scraps to garden gold

You collect your food waste and soiled paper, put them into your organics cart, and your hauler comes and takes it away. But what happens after that? How does your rotten food become nutrient-rich compost? (I've unfortunately still never been to the composting site, so all these photos are borrowed. Ohhh, look at the lovely blades of green grass!)

At the Hennepin County school organics meeting last month, Anne Ludvik of Specialized Environmental Technologies (SET), operator of the only composting facility in the Twin Cities metro area (there's also one in Hutchinson and one in Duluth), gave a presentation on the process of commercial composting. SET is a member of the U.S. Composting Council.

After organics are collected at your house, they're taken to the Hennepin County Transfer Station in Brooklyn Park for inspection. Here's the organics bunker:

Then the load goes off to the SET composting site in Rosemount. Organics are mixed within 24 hours of arriving at the site.

City of Minneapolis organics cart (currently only available in three areas of the city)

Organics from schools, businesses and homes arrive at the composting site.

Yard waste is stored, so during the winter when there's no yard waste collected, this stored material can be mixed with food waste to get the proper carbon:nitrogen ratio.

The red piece of equipment is the RotoMix VXT 745, which tears open compostable bags and mixes the organics but doesn't crush them. This is very important because you need to maintain the organics' bulk; if you only have small particles they fall to the bottom, and the piles go anaerobic (which means stinky).


The RotoMix's twin augers mix the organics.

The organics are formed into 1,000-cubic-yard windrows over aeration pipes with holes every 6 inches attached to blowers. When the organics are piled on top of the pipes, the blowers cycle on and off, blowing air through the pipes into the windrows, making the perfect conditions for bacteria to do their work. It takes about a week to get enough material to build a pile, which then sits for four to eight weeks, cooking. Temperatures are taken daily with 3-foot-long thermometers. The compost must reach 131 degrees for 7 consecutive days to kill the pathogens. The compost gets screened and cured three times.

Organics before they're screened

Finished compost goes through the trommel screener, which uses a half-inch screener.



Contaminants pile up at the back of the trommel screener


Curing compost

And 4 to 6 months later, it's finished! Garden gold!

Update from the front lines

Trusty correspondent Yvonne files this report from the Trashbasher Bay Area Bureau on new trash and organics collection service, which has been going on for one month, by Recology in San Mateo County (Calif.):

"So remember how I said our trash collection price didn't go up? I heard from other people who opted for the bigger cans that theirs did, a lot. Maybe that'll help them sort their trash better!!"

I asked if she told them that they could save money by opting for the small cart if they produced less trash.

"Yes, I told them, but they didn't really seem to care that much. Maybe they'll think about it more later though. I hope so!"

And what is her weekly trash for a family of 2 adults, 4 kids and 1 dog? Half a grocery bag. Nicely done!!



All the City Councils appear to be backing the collection rate increases.

From Half Moon Bay Patch:
Half Moon Bay's rate increase appears to be the most modest in comparison to other cities in San Mateo County that have raised their rates or are proposing to raise their rates in the near future.

Last night, the Foster City City Council unanimously approved a 29.5% rate hike. Burlingame's City Council considered a garbage rate increase of 17% last night. And on Jan. 10, Redwood City raised their garbage rates by 18%. Atherton, San Mateo and Menlo Park are among other cities proposing rate increases as well.

Other news stories:
From the Daily Journal
Garbage complaints in San Mateo County down
January 20, 2011, 02:51 AM By Michelle Durand Daily Journal Staff

Peninsula garbage customers are logging fewer complaints about missed pickups and other snafus with new provider Recology but some are also voicing frustration with a recent spate of double-digit service rate hikes, according to the overseeing agency.
The call volume is substantially down now over the first few weeks when customers lit up the phones at the South Bayside Waste Management Authority, said spokeswoman Monica Devincenzi.

SBWMA is the 12-agency joint powers authority that contracts with Recology on behalf of its members including Belmont, Burlingame, East Palo Alto, Foster City, Menlo Park, Redwood City, San Carlos, San Mateo, Atherton, Hillsborough, San Mateo County and the West Bay Sanitary District.

Exact call numbers were not immediately available but Devincenzi said the majority are more inquiries about types of programs rather than specific issues.

“It is all greatly improved since the rollout,” she said.

The phone lines at San Mateo County’s Health System, which were also busy in the first few weeks of the year because of disgruntled customers, are also quiet.

The county is no longer receiving any calls or complaints about collections services, said Health System spokeswoman Robyn Thaw.

A Recology representative did not respond to an inquiry about its phone traffic.

Devincenzi said some calls after Recology began its contract Jan. 1 were not unexpected even though both it and the SBWMA tried to head off problems with community workshops and public outreach.

Recology took over from Allied Waste, ending its 10-year contract and bringing new collection carts and schedules.
At the same time, cities and member agencies belonging to SBWMA began notifying customers of, and in some cases already voting on, garbage rate increases including some as high as 38.9 percent.

Although some of customers have questioned why increases are being asked at the same time service has been in question, the timing is coincidental.

Customers may also not fully realize the rate increase components include items not specifically tied to the Recology contract such as paying out Allied’s final bill and tip fees at the Ox Mountain landfill.


From the San Francisco Sentinel:

Recology San Mateo County update on collection services rollout progress: Reduced volumes, increased driver familiarity and proper cart set-out aiding in improved service

13 January 2011
SAN CARLOS, CA — Recology San Mateo County is reporting today that drivers are fully completing their routes and coming in closer to expected completion times as they become more familiar with the new routes, equipment, and as volumes decrease after the holiday season. Assisting this effort is the improvement in proper cart set outs by residents in the RethinkWaste service area.

“While our call volumes remain high, today’s levels are down approximately 20% from yesterday and the call queue is currently open with Customer Service Representatives awaiting calls,” said Mario Puccinelli, General Manager, Recology. “Recology is continuing to allocate extra resources to the call center and in the field, running additional trucks to respond to any service inquiries that arise.”

The company also reports that the characteristics of the calls have changed dramatically and are more focused on program information rather than service related concerns or issues.

“Our customer service representatives have updated the records of more than 3,000 customers to date to ensure that proper service is provided,” said Puccinelli. “This work will greatly reduce future service issues and will allow us to provide quality service to our customers.”

RethinkWaste has reported positive recycling percentages since the roll out of the CartSMART program.

“Recycling percentages remain high, an increase of 31% from the same period last year,” said Kevin McCarthy, Executive Director, RethinkWaste. “This exceeds the expected increases due to the introduction of the new CartSMART program.”

While the company is still improving its performance, it is asking the cooperation from its customers in two very important ways. First, Recology is asking customers to inform them of any issues or special instructions, if they have not already done so, in order for them to update their customer database and ensure that Recology is providing the proper level of service. Secondly, it is asking customers to set the carts out properly, wheels against the curb with 2-foot spacing between them and away from obstructions like vehicles and/or fixed structures.

“We are continuing to address service issues as they occur. However, the second week of service is proving to be better than the first,” said Puccinelli. “We will not be satisfied until our customers are. We are committed to putting the full resources of the Company to bear on solving any outstanding issues.”

About Recology San Mateo County

Recology San Mateo County was chosen in 2008 by RethinkWaste to provide Recycle, Compost and Garbage collection services for its 12 Member Agencies. Recology’s roots in recycling go back to 1920 in San Francisco, when garbage men, known then as “scavengers,” actively sought out alternative uses for refuse. Recology is now the largest employee owned company in the solid waste industry, parent to three dozen subsidiaries that provide solid waste services to more than 100 communities, and serves more than 600,000 residential and 80,000 commercial customers. Recology recycling facilities serve as national models, and the company is known as a pioneer in waste reduction, often exploring new technologies to facilitate landfill diversion. For more information, please visit RecologySanMateoCounty.com.

About RethinkWaste

Formed in 1982, RethinkWaste is a joint powers authority comprised of 12 Member Agencies (Atherton, Belmont, Burlingame, East Palo Alto, Foster City, Hillsborough, Menlo Park, Redwood City, San Carlos, San Mateo, the County of San Mateo and the West Bay Sanitary District) in San Mateo County and is a leader in implementing innovative waste reduction and recycling programs. RethinkWaste also owns and manages the Shoreway facility in San Carlos consisting of a permitted solid waste transfer station and a recycling processing facility. The Agency’s legal name is the South Bayside Waste Management Authority (SBWMA.) For more information on RethinkWaste, please visit our website at RethinkWaste.org.


Foster City joins trash-rate-hike club

By Elizabeth Pfeffer For the San Mateo County Times
San Jose Mercury News (California)
January 22, 2011
Foster City is among the latest mid-Peninsula cities to raise garbage rates since a new company took over collection for 92,000 San Mateo County households.

The City Council last week unanimously approved a 29.5 percent increase that will drive up the collection fee for a 32-gallon bin from $13.73 to $17.72 per month. The new rate goes into effect Feb. 1.

Of the 12 member agencies in the South Bayside Waste Management Authority -- the joint agency that made the switch to new trash collector Recology -- Belmont, Burlingame, East Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Redwood City and San Mateo County have now approved rate hikes similar to Foster City's, according to the authority.

Foster City residents received state-mandated warnings about the potential change before the council's vote Tuesday, and the response was minimal, officials said. Garbage has become a sensitive issue, however, since Recology got off to a shaky start at the beginning of the year, missing pickups at many homes and eliciting thousands of customer complaints.

Foster City Councilwoman Pam Frisella said that, once the kinks with Recology are worked out, it will be better than previous garbage company Allied Waste.

"People just have to be patient," she said. "Recology is fantastic."

With the increase, Foster City still has some of the lowest garbage bills in the county. Redwood City, for example, raised its rate for a 32-gallon bin -- the most commonly used size -- to nearly $25.

The new system is meant to improve waste management with more frequent pickups and easier disposal of recyclables and organic materials.

Still, Recology and the cities it serves have been inundated with complaints.

Recology spokesman Adam Alberti said the number of calls has gone down since the start of the year from an average of 5,000 per day to 2,000.

"That's a pretty high call volume, but it's a lot less, and the characteristics of the calls are different," he said. "Most calls we receive now really are related to how the program works."

Alberti attributed the challenging start to three things: The week service began was the busiest waste week of the year; routes changed; and drivers had to worker harder to manually lift bins that hadn't been set out on the curb correctly.

Consumption and the Environment webinar series (first webinar is Tues. Feb. 1)

The EPA's West Coast Climate and Materials Management Forum is offering a free year-long webinar series exploring ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help create more sustainable patterns of consumption in communities. The first webinar is this Tuesday, Feb. 1, at 11:30 a.m. CST, so sign up for it soon. Here're details:

When: February 1, 2011, 9:30am PST (12:30pm EST)
Speaker: Erik Assadourian, Senior Fellow at the Worldwatch Institute
Register: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/928518465

Webinar Summary
Erik Assadourian will be presenting on consumer culture. As director of the 2010 State of the World: Transforming Cultures project, he argues that in today’s culture, flying planes, owning many cars and living in a huge house are not conspicuously decadent choices but, oftentimes, the cultural norm. Consumer culture “leads people to find meaning, contentment, and acceptance through the consumption of goods and services,” because they have been raised to believe so, even though it does not improve quality of life and in fact destroys the environment. Instead of this system, Mr. Assadourian advocates for a shift to a new cultural paradigm based on sustainability. Here, what is “natural” and easy is also what is best for the planet. In his talk, he will take us through the current patterns of consumption, define “culture,” explain how consumerism has invaded cultures worldwide, and present his recommendations for creating a culture shift.

And here's the list of future topics (I know it's hard to read, so it's probably better to just click on the link):

Linden Hills Natural Home store, then and now

Linden Hills Natural Home used to be housed across the street from the Linden Hills Co-op in a small house, but after the Co-op moved to its new location, the home store became part of the main store. The variety of products is really good, and even though it looks like everything's compressed into a smaller space, the amount of shelf space is about the same, I was told. Here are pics from the old location and the new one. I apologize for the lack of wide-angle shots of the old location; when I took these in August my intent was to take close-ups of the products, so I don't have many shots of the store.


Old site:
Cleaning products
Plates and utensils, bags and sponges
These are so nifty I'd buy them for myself except that I don't usually pack a cold lunch.

Glass containers
Kids' stuff
I love these Wood from the Hood chopping boards.

Baby stuff
Kitchen items like colanders, pans and rugs
Jars, dishes and compost bins


New site:


As you can see, they have a great selection.

Low-VOC paint

Organics videos for your viewing pleasure

For work, I compiled a list of good videos showing how to gather compostables in your home, so I thought I'd share them with you. I found them quite interesting and fun. Some of them deal with residential recycling and commercial composting. Enjoy!

Recology San Mateo County, CA

Stockport, England

Merton, England

West Dorset, England click here for a second one.

Los Altos, CA click here for a second one.

Cedar Grove Compost (Everett, WA)

Linden Hills Power & Light

Pretty good video from Monkeysee Videos

Vancouver, B.C. Don’t trash your food click here for a second one.

City of Nanaimo, B.C. (The Green Bin Program)

San Francisco
also here -- look for Multi Media in the blue box on the right side.

evening compost collection in San Francisco's Chinatown

Allied Waste’s composting facility (Corvalis, OR)

Residential recycling in San Diego

Commercial composting in Scotland

More on recycling in the Bay Area

OK, so now I'm on a Bay Area kick ...

You must read this thorough and fascinating blog post (with lots of good links, too) on Streetsblog San Francisco about garbage and recycling in the City by the Bay, as well as this one from A World of Words on taking a tour of the San Francisco transfer station. There's much more to these posts than what I've revealed here; check them out!




I really like Recology's blog, too. Lots of good posts.

Massive new composting program rolls out in the Bay Area

On the peninsula just south of the San Francisco International Airport, in San Mateo County, Recology just began curbside organics collection for 92,000 households and more than 10,000 businesses. Yeah, you read those numbers right. A huge new program, that is of course seeing some glitches but that aims to divert 25 to 35 percent more organics and recyclables from the landfill.

Some other staggering numbers: Organics collection is offered to all 403,000 (!) households in Alameda County, fueled by StopWaste.org's promotional and outreach efforts. In San Francisco, 225,000 households and 4,000 businesses have curbside collection, including 8,500 apartment buildings (typically very difficult to reach because of the transient nature of the residents). Read the full BioCycle article here.

Anyway, back to San Mateo County: With new weekly organics and recycling collection (recycling used to be every other week, and the curbside organics is brand-new), rates are going up, so I can foresee about 800 million angry phone calls. But hopefully the people who feel as my friend does will also speak up and contact Recology with words of support and praise.


Here's what my friend Yvonne, who lives in Foster City, said Friday: "They were working out their routes today, missed streets, etc, but the kids loved seeing the new trucks around all day! The higher cost is totally worth it. We have one bag of diapers and not even half a grocery bag of other trash." (Thanks for the pics, guys!)

And look at all the plastics they can recycle curbside, too.

Plastic (no bags or black plastics)

• Coffee cup lids
• Plastic bottles and caps, tubs and lids and containers, including clamshells, numbered 1-7
• Plastic buckets

Below are some news stories:

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From the Daily Journal of San Mateo County, 1/8/11:

Officials hope to work out garbage glitches

January 08, 2011, 02:38 AM By Caitilin McAdoo Bay City News Service

A switch to a new garbage and recycling service provider that began Monday in parts of San Mateo County has seen some glitches, but officials have said they are confident the problems will be worked out. Recology San Mateo County is providing the new service to 92,000 residential customers and more than 10,000 commercial customers in Belmont, Burlingame, East Palo Alto, Foster City, Menlo Park, Redwood City, San Carlos, San Mateo, Atherton, Hillsborough, the West Bay Sanitary District and parts of unincorporated San Mateo County. Recology took over the service from Allied Waste after being awarded a 10-year contract with a $51 million base compensation for the first year, according to Monica Devincenzi, recycling outreach and sustainability manager for the South Bayside Waste Management Authority, a joint powers authority known as RethinkWaste. The new automated service offers improved recycling services, including weekly pickup of recycling and green waste. It also offers expanded green waste recycling that includes food waste and even pizza boxes. With the new system, customers no longer have to separate recyclables such as bottles, cans and paper by type and can instead throw them all into a single bin that can be wheeled out to the curb. “Overall the service has been going pretty well,” Devincenzi said. She noted that Recology has received numerous complaints from customers, mainly for missed pickups, but said that the company has been proactive about responding to those complaints. One issue customers have had is that when they call to report a problem, they can’t get through to anyone. Recology has brought in 15 additional customer service representatives over the past few days, and Thursday, the company put 11 additional trucks on the street to pick up garbage that had been missed, Devincenzi said. Hold times for customer service are now less than a minute, Devincenzi said, and she expects the additional trucks to be back out on the streets today picking up waste that was missed. Gina Simi, spokeswoman for Recology, said that some customers had experienced missed pickups the week before Recology began its service, which accounts for some of the complaints. Some elderly people and people with disabilities who previously had backyard pickup with Allied Waste did not get backyard pickup this week, Devincenzi said. Recology is working on updating their system for special pickup instructions and is asking people who wish to have backyard pickup services provided to call the company to update their information, Devincenzi said. The new system is expected to greatly reduce the amount of garbage customers send to the landfill. Simi said the company is estimating a 25 percent to 35 percent increase in composting and recycling in the service area. In the first three days of the new service, there was a 78 percent increase of compost and green waste and a 31 percent increase in recycled materials, Devincenzi said. “For a rollout of this size ... there are bound to be some problems and glitches,” said Redwood City spokesman Malcolm Smith. He said he has received numerous complaints from residents reporting missed service, but a handful of people have also contacted him to say that the switch went smoothly for them. “I have a great deal of confidence that they will work out the bugs,” Smith said. Despite the complaints, Simi said that 97 percent of customers experienced no problems with the new service. She also noted that the week after Christmas is traditionally the heaviest garbage week of the year, and this year the amount of garbage collected was double what was collected last year. Devincenzi said she wanted to remind customers that the new pickup times and routes are different from what people have been used to. Officials are asking customers to wait until 6 p.m. before reporting a missed pickup. In another change from the previous collector, Recology trucks will go down one side of a street picking up trash with their mechanical arms and then return at a later time to pick up trash on the other side of the street. For safety reasons, the new routes require the trucks to make mainly right turns. The new three-cart system, known as CartSMART, also means that three different trucks will collect the contents from the three types of bins at different times, Devincenzi said. The new service, however, also means rate increases for most customers. Member agencies, which each set their own rates, are in the process of recalculating rates. Overall, customers can expect an average rate increase of between 15 percent and 30 percent with a maximum increase of 38 percent, Devincenzi said.

From Waste & Recycling News, 1/7/11:

Record volumes of material were collected by Recology during the company’s initial days of service in San Mateo County, Calif., through a new contract.

The company saw a 78% increase in the daily average of organic materials collected and a 31% increase in the daily average of recyclable materials collected during its first three days of service this week, Recology said.

Recology, formerly known as Norcal Waste Systems, began servicing 92,000 homes in San Mateo County this week.

Recology is providing service to members of the South Bayside Waste Management Authority, also known as RethinkWaste, in the county.

The 12 members of RethinkWaste are Atherton, Belmont, Burlingame, East Palo Alto, Foster City, Hillsborough, Menlo Park, Redwood City, San Carlos, San Mateo, the county of San Mateo, and the West Bay Sanitary District.

"We are very excited about the increased recycling volumes we are seeing," said Kevin McCarthy, executive director of RethinkWaste. "The success in recycling experienced thus far exceeds our expectations."

From the San Francisco Examiner, 1/5/11:

Peninsula residents in 10 cities and parts of unincorporated San Mateo County should brace for higher garbage rates this year as a San Francisco firm becomes their first new trash collector in almost three decades.

Prices for some customers are projected to increase by nearly 40 percent after Recology took over service for 92,000 households and 10,000 businesses between Burlingame and East Palo Alto, which officials say is one of the largest garbage-service areas in the country.

The biggest change — and a major reason for the higher costs — is a new weekly schedule for recycling and compost, which had been picked up every other week under previous collector Allied Waste. Allied was passed over in favor of Recology for a 10-year contract serving the joint agency South Bayside Waste Management Authority, which was recently renamed RethinkWaste.

“There’s no more wondering if it’s their week or not, so that’s going to be much easier for everybody,” said Gina Simi, a spokeswoman for Recology, which delivered 440,000 new color-coded carts for garbage, recycling and compost to customers.

Besides more-frequent collection, residents can now put all types of recyclables in a single blue bin and toss food scraps into their green yard-clippings container.

But those upgrades — along with 127 new automated collection trucks, a $47 million rebuild of the authority’s San Carlos processing facility and paying outstanding debts to Allied — are expected to trigger significant rate hikes.

Recology’s service is projected to cost $86.9 million in 2011, compared to an estimated $80.4 million for Allied last year, which means RethinkWaste collectively needs to raise rates by about 15.6 percent.

Each agency approves its garbage rates independently, and the increases could be higher or lower depending on an agency’s reserves and rate history, RethinkWaste spokeswoman Monica Devincenzi said.

In San Mateo, officials are proposing to hike quarterly garbage bills by 23.3 percent, or $9.15, to $48.43 for a typical residential customer with a 32-gallon cart.

The biggest projected hike is in Atherton at 38.5 percent, followed by Hillsborough at 32.1 percent and Foster City at 25.5 percent. Menlo Park, by contrast, has projected an 8.9 percent increase.

The transition to Recology culminates a more than five-year process that put the RethinkWaste contract out to bid for the first time since the agency formed in 1982.

Allied also lost its job running RethinkWaste’s Shoreway facility in San Carlos, which will now be managed by South Bay Recycling.

Tag hanging

You may remember that in April I wrote about hanging tags on garbage and organics carts in the Linden Hills neighborhood to try to increase participation and thank those who are already participating. Well, I did that again a few weeks ago, this time as part of a pilot program in parts of the Seward/Hiawatha/Longfellow/Phillips neighborhoods. But THIS time, it was December, and the temperature was 7 degrees. We started at 6:30 a.m. I gained a new appreciation for the crews that pick up our trash and organics every day out in the elements starting at the crack of dawn when it's most cold. And I'm sure all our snow this month has made their job a lot more difficult.

Still dark out when we started. We had to start this time of day because we were following the trash and organics trucks, attaching our hangers only after the carts had been emptied.

You can see why they need super-bright lights at this time of day.

Trash carts got an "It's so easy to be green" hanger.

The crews leave a tag if they find non-organics in the cart, or if something else needs tweaking.

Participants got a "You're making a difference" tag.

If the carts are full, Rose and Lloyd hook the carts onto the truck to be tipped, otherwise they just reach into the cart and grab the bag or two in there. (Check out the contrast between how Rose is dressed in this picture with how she was dressed in April)

Tools of the trade: Cart hangers and a stapler, so the hangers don't blow away or fall off. The stapling was a good idea because a lot of the hangers we put on carts in Linden Hills blew away or fell into the garbage trucks.

It's early in the pilot, but this organics load shows encouraging participation.

A tag for excess garbage hung by the city crews, paired with the hanger to join the organics program that I hung.

We saw many garbage carts overflowing with trash. I hope those eligible for the pilot take advantage of the free program because it would make a huge difference. Want to read more about the organics pilots and the city of Minneapolis' efforts? Click here and here.

Recycle your rags

Most people know you can donate used clothing and other goods, but what about the pair of jeans torn beyond repair or the threadbare sweatshirt full of holes? There are two companies in the Twin Cities that recycle rags. Wipers Recycling makes them into what they call wiping rags, which they sell in 10- and 25-lb boxes, or granular absorbents. They have drop-off locations in Maplewood and St. Paul Park.

There's also USAgain (Use Again), a national company with a location in Roseville, which processes clothes and rags from almost 1,000 collection bins.

All rags must be clean and dry.