The value of food scraps
Trinity Green, a grassroots initiative based in Durham, is turning a neighborhood's waste into a business opportunity.
Walking up to my house in the Watts-Hillandale neighborhood, I noticed the white paper squished in between the doorknob and door panel. I grabbed at it mindlessly, took a one second glance, and caught myself just as I was about to add it to the junk mail pile. The flyer was advertising a local compost service called "Trinity Green." The business model couldn't be simpler. They provide compost buckets to you, the customer, and you fill them up with all those fruit and vegetable peels, egg shells, and coffee grinds sitting around your kitchen. When you reach the top, contact Trinity Green (trinitygreen@rocketmail.com), pay your $15-20, and the business will pick it up from your door and bring you a fresh bucket of compost in return (see video).
The operation is run by Richard Stenz, who lives in the Trinity Park community. Two aspects make it possible: 1) the City of Durham does not collect compost and 2) many people in these neighborhoods have some impressive gardening skills and have a demand for fertilizer. While the operation has its limits, which most likely correspond to the size of Stenz's backyard, this model can be implemented in many neighborhoods in the area. All it would take is a group of houses or street to come together, purchase the basic supplies, set aside some space in people's backyards...and you have a locally-based compost factory. Call it a community investment! Even if the city did collect compost, there would be difficulty in completing the loop. It would require the residents to drive to the city compost heap and retrieve it themselves. Stenz's model keeps all the material in the local area.
If you have read my past posts, you can probably tell I am an advocate of turning waste into value (see here and here). We can sit around waiting for cradle-to-cradle design to make it mainstream, but why wait? So put on your entrepreneurial hats, stick your head in the trash (not literally of course) and you might find that the waste you just threw away may have just been a wasted opportunity.
