NPR’s Morning Edition recently profiled a tiny composting company in New Hampshire. It’s always fun to see food waste receive national attention.
EcoMovement collects restaurant food waste from about 30 eateries near Portsmouth, N.H, and I’m sure that number will only grow after the company’s NPR exposure.
Founder Rian Bedard saw composting up close while living in San Francisco, then brought it to New England. And restaurateurs are eating it up there, partly because of the cost savings.
Bella Sol owner Brian Pearson estimates that the service has cut the restaurant’s trash removal expenses by at least 75 percent.
I’m impressed that Bedard gives customers an incentive to reduce their waste by making the fees based on the amount produced.
The most interesting angle of the piece, in my mind, though, was the idea of whether these small composting operations will push the waste giants to offer composting service. While that would put the minnows out of business, it would mean composting has a much larger reach. In that way, composting’s arc may come to resemble the story of organic farming.