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| UT student Emily Royall examining her backyard compost pile |
Austin’s Zero Waste Plan aims to cut the amount of garbage going to the landfill by 90 percent by 2040. While the strategic plan, which was passed by the City Council in 2009, outlines an array of ideas meant to reduce waste, a core focus of Zero Waste is the simple act of composting, or the natural recycling of organic goods into fertilizer.
According to the Zero Waste strategic plan, about half of all waste that goes to the landfill is compostable. Therefore, for Austin to go Zero Waste, making sure that biodegradable items make it into the compost pile instead of the garbage heap is key, says Jason Sanders, the secretary of the Texas Compost Advisory Council and a composting class teacher for the city.
One of the ways the city is promoting personal composting is with its Green30 challenge, which began on Earth Day last year. The program works by giving Austin Solid Waste Services customers who buy a composter, downsize to a 30 gallon trash can and take one of the city’s backyard composting classes a rebate worth 75 percent the cost of the composter up to 75 dollars.
The city is offering 15 backyard-composting classes this summer, with some classes being taught in Spanish. People can also register to host a free composting class for groups of at least 25 people, or take an online class.
At the moment, the city’s Solid Waste Services infrastructure includes the collection of trash, recycling and yard-trimmings from residential properties. That means unless the residents are backyard composters, many compostable items are being thrown out with the trash to be sent to the landfill. Additionally, biodegradable items that aren’t suitable for backyard composters, like meat and dairy, but that can be composted through different techniques are being trashed too.
The Dirt on Composting
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| A transparent bucket at a free city-sponsored compost class shows the rough ratio of "greens" to "browns" as composter should have. |
According to the Zero Waste strategic plan, about half of all waste that goes to the landfill is compostable. Therefore, for Austin to go Zero Waste, making sure that biodegradable items make it into the compost pile instead of the garbage heap is key, says Jason Sanders, the secretary of the Texas Compost Advisory Council and a composting class teacher for the city.
“ It’s very cheap, it’s simple, it’s convenient,” said Sanders, who has been composting his whole life. “ It’s an easy quick fix to our waste problems.”
Composting works by breaking down biodegradable waste into a nutrient-rich soil-like fertilizer, which can be used to naturally fertilize gardens or lawns. Compost also helps return carbon to the earth instead of releasing it into the atmosphere where it forms CO2, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming, said Sanders.
To start composting, all that is needed is to combine nitrogen-rich “greens, ” like vegetable peelings and fresh cut grass to carbon-rich “browns” like dead leaves and small branches, in about equal parts, and make sure that they stay slightly moist and oxygenated by mixing up the contents of the heap once in a while, said Sanders. Micro-organisms will then take over, turning the raw materials into compost.
However, despite the simplicity of the process, composting is far from popular. Although the city or the EPA keep no exact numbers, Sanders said he estimates that less than 5 percent of people compost.
The city of Austin is hopes to change that with a two-pronged composting focus contained in the Zero Waste strategic plan. The first part of the plan is to encourage individuals and businesses to compost their own waste, the second is for the city to develop the infrastructure needed to collect more types of organic waste and increase the capacity of composting facilities.
“ Looking at our materials not as waste but as resources is an important behavioral change that we need to look at,” said Aiden Cohen, the commercial recycling program manager for the city, about the Zero Waste strategy.
The Individual Initiative
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| Secretary of the City Compost Advisory Council Jason Sanders teaches a group of people about the basics of composting. |
One of the ways the city is promoting personal composting is with its Green30 challenge, which began on Earth Day last year. The program works by giving Austin Solid Waste Services customers who buy a composter, downsize to a 30 gallon trash can and take one of the city’s backyard composting classes a rebate worth 75 percent the cost of the composter up to 75 dollars.
So far, 917 people have taken the composting classes and 461 rebates have been issued. Although only the city’s Solid Waste Services customers are eligible to receive the rebate, the classes are free and open to anyone interested in composting, said Gena McKinley, a planner with Solid Waste Services, which accounts for the difference between the rebate number and the class participants so far.
“ Composting is something that might daunting to a citizen…so we try to provide in a short amount a time something where someone can listen and learn,” said McKinley.
The classes, some which are taught by Sanders, give people the basics behind the biology of composting, how to start backyard composting, and how to solve common problems people may face, like odor or pests. However, even people who are veteran composters can benefit from them.
“ I thought I could come to get some tips on how to make my compost pile better,” said Janet Keesee, who has been composting for several years, an attendee at the June 15 class.
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| A handmade stone composter on display at the Zilker Botanical gardens. |
Another method the city is using to interest individuals in composting is by sponsoring an outdoor exhibition of an array of composters among the flora at the Zilker Botanical Gardens. From decorative stone structures, to do-it-yourself chicken-wire containers, the exhibit shows that composters come in all shapes, sizes and price ranges. Along with composters themselves, signs with short instructions give a short lesson on how to get started with composting.
Composting in Businesses' Hands
With businesses accounting for about 20 to 30 percent of all the garbage that is thrown away, making sure that the organic waste is composted will be a necessity for the city to reach its Zero Waste goals, said Cohen.
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| A trash can outside of the Whole Foods on Lamar Blvd. includes a bin for compostable materials, as well as recyclables and landfill items. |
However, at the moment there are no mandates on the books that require businesses to compost or any city infrastructure in place to retrieve compostable items like paper, food scraps and cardboard boxes from businesses. Nonetheless, Cohen says that enough businesses take it upon themselves to compost their applicable waste that he would consider Austin to be in the budding stages of growth when it comes to business compost involvement.
“If we were to make an analogy to a person, we are like toddlers,” said Cohen. “ We’re learning a lot, we have a couple of big commercial [composting] facilities in the region, and we’re looking at ways to encourage additional participation.”
Although no exact record exists of local businesses that compost, Cohen says small businesses like restaurants and coffee shops seem to be the most involved. However, Whole Foods, a large organic grocery store that was founded in Austin but has become an international chain, also makes sure to compost all of its biodegradable waste, citing that to “recycle, reuse and reduce [their] waste wherever and whenever [they] can” is a core value on the company website.
The Whole Foods located on Lamar Blvd. is a testament to those values outlined, with bins meant for collecting biodegradable waste located throughout the store. Since there is no city infrastructure in place for collecting compostable material Whole Foods, and all other businesses with composting in mind, have its organic waste picked up by a private collection company which hauls it to either Organics by Gosh or Texas Disposal Systems, the two facilities near the city with the capacity to break down a variety of food scrap, and not only “greens” and “browns” into compost.
While the decision to separate organic waste from garbage and send it to compost is up to the business for now, Cohen says that the Universal Recycling Ordinance will likely change that in the near future. Phase I of the ordinance, which will go into effect this October, will require commercial and multifamily residences, like apartment buildings to recycle. Phase II, which is being drafted now and will go into affect sometime after Phase I, will require food, beverage, retail and manufacturing businesses to recycle and, quite likely, said Cohen, separate their organic waste for compost.
Along with drafting the details of Phase II, Cohen also said that the city is currently working on selecting a contractor to lead a pilot program with the goal of determining the volume and type of waste different businesses produce and the best methods to recycling, composting and reducing it.
“ Compostable materials that are a very, very large portion of the material flow coming out of restaurants and businesses, so if we truly want to get to a 90 percent landfill diversion, then at some point we will have to incorporate organics recycling,” said Cohen.
Composting
Infrastructure: Dillo Dirt and Beyond
Infrastructure: Dillo Dirt and Beyond
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| A sign at the Hornsby Bend Biosolids plant points towards acres covered with mounds Dillo Dirt, a compost made from treated sewage and yard-trimmings. |
At the moment, the city’s Solid Waste Services infrastructure includes the collection of trash, recycling and yard-trimmings from residential properties. That means unless the residents are backyard composters, many compostable items are being thrown out with the trash to be sent to the landfill. Additionally, biodegradable items that aren’t suitable for backyard composters, like meat and dairy, but that can be composted through different techniques are being trashed too.
Right now, the city is investigating ways that the organic waste that is being thrown away could be composting instead, said Jessica King, a sustainability administrator for the city. This includes deciding if a “compost cart” needs to be offered along with garbage and recycling carts, what the collection schedule would be and ensuring that the workers and machinery are available to collect it.
However, the first item the city must do before anything else is to become permitted by the state for processing food scraps, a yearlong process, according to King. City Council has not yet voted on pursuing a food-scraps permit yet said King, but it’s an item that is expected to come before the council in the near future.
While the city may not be able to process all potentially compostable items, it still has an award- winning composting program that mixes treated sewage and yard-trimmings collected from residential customers to make “Dillo Dirt,” a compost that the city then uses to tend the landscaping at public schools, parks and non-profits. The program, which has been around since 1989, creates a compost that meets the “unrestricted use” criteria for use, which means it can be used from everything to maintain the grass at Zilker park (and inadvertently create big muddy messes like at last year’s Austin City Limits music festival) to growing vegetables in a backyard garden.
Zero Waste Plan: Potential Energy
Overall, the strategic plan is a set of policy guidelines with stated goals, said King, while the master plan-which is still being drafted and will need to be approved by the council- will focus more on the physical realities to reaching those goals.
Because the investigative phase is still going on for much of the components of the master plan that will be presented to City Council, exact costs and budgets are unavailable at this time. Nonetheless, Sanders believes that when the numbers are presented the plan for Zero Waste may start to face some more scrutiny.
“ The biggest challenge will be economics,” said Sanders. “ There’s always someone against it because of the money.”
