Composting Project
The Food and Gardens Division works hard to be responsible in all it practices and that includes our waste. A main part of our job is food recovery, which means we often receive food in large quantities that was headed for the landfill. We distribute the good food and compost the rest. Composting turns food waste to a useful form in a time-efficient process. The humus produced is a valuable product for community gardeners.
CAC uses an Earth Tub
in-vessel composting system manufactured by Green Mountain Technologies.
In turn, the fertile, organic matter produced through the project enriches
the soils of CAC-supported community gardens.
In Dane County alone, 50 million pounds of food waste from Dane County
ends up in landfills each year— and over 24 million is produced
by restaurants1. By most estimates, food residuals make up approximately
15-20% of waste being land-filled, yet are the least recovered waste.
A USDA report2 estimates that 130 pounds of food per person each year ends
up in landfills, an amount that could feed 49 million hungry people in
the United States.
To find out how our composting project works, click here.
Made possible by the support and encouragement of the State of Wisconsin
Department of Natural Resources,
City of Madison CDBG,
United Way of Dane County,
Community Services Block Grant,
and Olds Seed Solutions.
Thanks also to Willy Street Co-op,
for their technical assistance.
Sources
1 Recycling Economics Group and Recycle Worlds Consulting, The Dane County Waste Characterization Study, Final Report, 1994
