Save money and the environment by composting organics

Communities in Skagit County are teaming up to reduce greenhouse gases, and the first place some of them are looking is the garbage can.

Biodegradable waste in the United States makes up almost half of all garbage generated. That might be acceptable if those apple cores and paper plates were decomposing in nature, but rot in a landfill takes on a different character.

Compacted and later sealed like a mummy, landfill trash doesn’t get help decomposing from rainfall, sunlight or oxygen. The resulting anaerobic (no oxygen) decomposition may take decades or centuries. One study by archeology professor William Rathje at the University of Arizona discovered legible newspapers more than 15 years old in a landfill, while studies on food waste showed only a 50 percent degradation rate over 20-year periods.

During the time the landfill decomposition takes, the trash produces significant amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Methane is more a nuisance than a resource; it’s combustible and causes respiratory distress, posing both safety and health hazards.

When materials are composted, they are exposed to plenty of oxygen for aerobic decomposition, which eats away nearly all of the methane produced — an environmentally friendly alternative to the landfill’s anaerobic process.

Curbing methane production is a big motive for Craig Culmback, co-owner and operator of Skagit Soils, a local commercial composting facility. At Skagit Soils food scraps and yard waste are turned back into nutrient-rich soil.

Culmback says composting has multiple benefits for the environment and the pocketbook. Environmental pollution can be substantially reduced just by composting food scraps instead of trashing them.

He said organic materials removed from the garbage can be processed into a soil product and sold locally for an economic boost. For restaurants, he added, “the cost of the organics Dumpster is less than the garbage Dumpsters.”

We, the consumers, also benefit from using compost in our lawns and gardens, and for conservation, restoration and construction projects.

Realizing the benefits of composting in a time when both the economy and sustainability are key, two local companies — Skagit Soils and Waste Management, a garbage collection company — decided to join forces. They created the Skagit Green Team to facilitate hauling food waste to the local composting facility.

Edison Elementary School, Nell Thorn Restaurant & Pub in La Conner and Village Pizza in Anacortes are among the first to take full advantage of both the economic and environmental savings by composting food and paper waste. And the momentum is growing.

Earlier this month, restaurant and business owners met with the Skagit Green Team at Seeds restaurant in La Conner to discuss the feasibility of composting their organic scraps.

The discussion intrigued Joan Tezak, director of the Anacortes Arts and Crafts Festival. She anticipates increased bottle and can recycling during the Aug. 7-9 event, and she plans to contract with the Skagit Green Team to collect all of the festival’s food waste. Also, leftover cooking grease will be picked up by a biofuels co-op, and food vendors are being asked to use biodegradables, like paper plates, as much as possible.

“We will need the cooperation of both festivalgoers and vendors,” she said.

Other festival plans include having volunteers help people place the right material into the proper compost, recycling and garbage collection bins to minimize contamination from plastic cutlery and other noncompostable items.

This is a giant step for a local festival that draws nearly 40,000 people and artists from around the Northwest. For Tezak, it was a simple choice of economic incentive.

“We hope that this is only the beginning to reducing our $4,500 garbage bill. We are moving towards green this summer,” she said enthusiastically.

Waste Management already hauls all residential yard waste to Skagit Soils for composting. Residents who have Waste Mangement yard waste service but don’t have their own compost bins can place their food waste in the yard waste bins.

Culmback believes our lifestyle patterns are changing.

“I remember when I was a young kid we threw everything in the garbage — tin cans, glass jars, plastic,” she said. “Now I don’t think I could bring myself to throw a can or jar in the garbage. That is how it will be with organics recycling.”

Take out the trash and the emissions

COOL 2012

A new national campaign has begun to encourage people to stop putting valuable materials in the trash — and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Compostable Organics Out of Landfills by 2012, also known as COOL 2012, is behind the movement to educate individuals, cities, counties and states about ways to keep compostable materials out of the landfills. COOL 2012 will provide tools, models, presentation materials and public policy suggestions to achieve the goal in communities around North America.

Tools to start your community composting and other information are available online at http://www.cool2012.com.

Skagit Green Team

For interested restaurant owners, here’s where to sign up for food waste collection:

Waste Management, 12122 Bayridge Drive, Burlington, WA 98233, 360-757-0236.

Craig Culmback at Skagit Soils, 13260 Ball Road, Mount Vernon, WA 98273, 360-424-0199.

— Callie Martin

Callie Martin is the waste reduction/recycling educator for Skagit County Public Works in Mount Vernon. She can be reached at or 360-336-9400.