California has implemented Senate Bill 1383 (SB1383) to reduce short-lived climate pollutants, like the gases that come from food waste in our landfills. Some municipalities have a waste management system where residents have a separate small bin for their food waste. The City of San José says to throw the food into the regular garbage and it will be sorted out. Really?
Food waste in our landfills doesn’t turn into compost. According to the EPA, about 58% of the methane emissions from municipal solid waste landfills are from food we throw away. These landfills are the third-largest source of methane emissions from human activities in the United States. Food waste comprises about 24% of this solid waste. The World Wildlife Fund says the production of lost or wasted food in the U.S. generates as much greenhouse gas emissions as 32.6 million cars.
In the suburbs, it’s a struggle to find solutions to household food scraps and waste. Having a compost pile in the backyard is an invitation for critters that no one wants by their house. Another option would be to use plastic barrels but the detritus heats up as it decomposes (thermal decomposition) and then plastic is introduced into the very thing to use to feed edible gardens.
Local San Bruno-based company Mill is working on a closed-loop system that for us consumers starts with an appliance the size of a kitchen step- on garbage bin. Also named Mill, it will take almost all your food scraps, including some poultry bones and meats, and convert them into food grounds that you can utilize as a soil amendment in your garden, fertilizer on your lawn or to feed your backyard chickens. It is important to point out that the food grounds produced in the bin are not compost, but more like highly potent fuel that you can add to existing compost, soil or feed to boost effectiveness. The premise behind the company is to minimize food waste by turning food scraps and leftovers too questionable to eat into nutrient-dense fuel for our soils or farm animals. When it can be kept out of the landfill and used to feed, everyone wins.
The odor-free bin comes with an easy-to-use app that helps with the initial setup, and then provides information and resources like data about your bin’s energy usage and your own impact diverting food waste from landfill. The company partnered with Northern Tilth, an environmental consultancy company based in Maine that specializes in soil- based regulatory issues, to run trials that evaluated the effectiveness of using the Mill food grounds at home. The app also lists hundreds of foods and lets you know if they are OK to grind up or not. The daily ‘Dry & Grind’ cycle (you can set what time it runs each day or night, and usually lasts about four hours) is what turns your food scraps into grounds. The more you put in, and the more water content (like lettuces) the longer it will run, although the company estimates that one cycle uses less energy than running your dishwasher.
It’s exciting to open the lid after a cycle to see the beautiful soil-like results that were very recently solid, recognizable food bits.
Getting to use every full bin in the garden also means the money spent on what turns into inedible groceries isn’t at a complete loss—they may even prove to be resourceful for growing your own food, depending on how green your thumb is. The USDA cites that the average American family of four loses $1,500 to uneaten food every year.
If you aren’t able to make use of your fresh food grounds made by Mill either in the garden or to feed your chickens, you can close the loop with support from Mill via local community gardens, local composting programs and services or schedule a pickup. Mill provides these resources in their app. A few of the local community composter pickup or drop off locations are:
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Fresh Approach freshapproach.org
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San Jose Conservation Corps sjceccs.org
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San Mateo County Sustainability Department smcsustainability.org/waste-reduction/composting
Any farms interested in getting in touch with Mill can visit mill.com/contact
