SUSTAINABLE LIVING, LLC

Composting in every business and household is the norm in an ideal world.  Not only does it create the best garden soil available- for free, but it cuts down on the quantity of materials going into the waste stream and captures a valuable resource that is otherwise costly to manage.  Not-so-fun factoid: 40% of America’s food ends up in the trash!  If we’re wasting that much, at least we could be recycling it to make more food from it right here in town.  The Chatham county would like to be the first in Georgia to be a Zero-Waste county- if we make our voices heard that we the people also want to attain this goal; our officials will have an easier time getting it done.

Other cities like San Francisco CA, Austin TX, and Seattle Washington are already doing this.  In Seattle, 98% of the population has curbside pickup of all recyclables including food waste.  Ordinarily, as much as 50% of the waste stream going to landfills is food scrap materials.  An average household produces 45 pounds of food waste each month, which doesn’t sound like that much, but, when you multiply that by the number of households within the city limits alone, which is 51,375, it comes to a staggering 2,311,875 pounds of valuable resource wasted each and every month.

According to Dennis Hutton (AICP, LEED-AP, Director of Comprehensive Planning, Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission,) “The Chatham Environmental Forum also recognizes that home-owners are throwing good money after bad when they send their food waste to the landfill and then turn around and buy fertilizer from the local garden supply house. That’s not a double whammy: it’s a quadruple whammy! You pay for the food; you pay to dispose of the food scraps in a landfill; then you pay to buy chemical fertilizer that kills soil microorganisms; then you pay for pesticides to control the insects that the soil microorganisms would devour if the chemicals hadn’t wiped them out. Can you imagine space aliens trying to figure out this food system we have developed?

The Forum is working with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the State Legislature to allow single-stream, industrial composting operations on landfill sites. Single-stream composting means that all food waste is composted, including meat and dairy products that may cause problems in home composting.  In order to be a true Zero-waste County, all food waste must be composted. This requires a strict schedule of aeration, much like a sewage treatment plant or a fertilizer factory so a landfill is a logical place to have such an operation.

It’s very odd that regulators (and the general public) don’t think twice about the dangerous and potentially toxic processes that convert corn to high fructose corn syrup which has become a staple in our diet, but are afraid of pathogens and bacteria in food ten minutes after it leaves the table.   Or that we accept cutting up cows with chainsaws, but recoil from touching a steak bone two minutes after we finish gnawing on it. Go figure!”   Tell it like it is Mr. Hutton!!

In order to move Savannah in a self-sustaining direction in regards to food, SUGA is working towards creating school and community gardens and urban farms.  Before we can create enough gardens and farms to feed ourselves sustainably, we must close the loop between resource (garbage) and need (compost).  Compost, available in large quantities, is a necessity to enrich and enliven our sandy soil if we are to feed our population as the petroleum based, industrialized farming era comes to an end.

Small but worthy steps can be made now in that direction by each of us. Composting can be done on an individual or household level in any situation, even if you don’t have a yard or garden. Worm bins can be kept under the sink or in a pantry or closet; tumblers and ready-made bins can be kept outside the back door; pallet-bins can be made for free and an artist friend can help it look fun or fanciful.  If you have a garden, you can always just bury it in different spots like my grandparents used to.  If you don’t have a need for compost, barter it at a community garden for veggies or sell it on Craig’s List, you’ll no doubt be swamped with calls!  Well Fed’s own Rene Terran is helping to organize Earthday events this year and has arranged for all the food containers and implements to be compostable. These materials along with food scraps will be collected separately to take to Longwood Plantation for composting. 

Speaking of Earthday, please plan to attend and learn who the folks are that are making a difference in our community.  SUGA will be there and I’ll be doing a composting workshop if you’re inspired to get one started- see you there!

Together we can all make a huge impact for the good of our community. Let’s all let our officials know we are for the Zero-Waste plan and ask what we can do to help it move forward, the more voices they hear the faster it will happen.