Why You Should Compost At Your Business Or Organization
Success of Commercial Composting
Composting has grown far beyond at-home barrels in backyards. Its benefits address food waste and global warming while minimizing the negative effect that food waste has on our environment. An increasing number of commercial businesses are putting efforts into company-wide composting programs, as well as donating leftovers and replacing single-use items with compostable alternatives.
Food Waste in Landfills
Food waste makes up the largest amount of material sent to landfills. Over 36 million tons of food waste go to landfills every year in the United States alone, approximately 40% of U.S. food production! When food waste ends up in our landfills, it produces significant amounts of methane - a gas that is 20x worse for our environment than CO2.
Restaurants and large businesses contribute significantly to these statistics. A whopping 84.3% of unused food in restaurants ends up in the trash, while the Green Restaurant Association asserts that 95% of restaurant waste could actually be recycled or composted.
Businesses that compost with WasteNot receive receptacles like this that can be placed by your trash dumpster.
Businesses That Compost
Many businesses use incentives and educational programs to reduce food waste throughout their stores. This can include:
Compensation for leadership based on certain goals achieved, like waste reduction.
Clear signage for educating employees & customers to separate compost, trash and different recyclable materials.
Working with trash haulers to ensure that food waste is properly diverted, and to better educate employees on food waste disposal efforts.
Check out this article about WasteNot’s compost pilot program for businesses in Andersonville.
Check out this article to see what businesses are participating in the Waste Less in Wicker Park pilot program.
Benefits of Composting At Your business or Organization
Many businesses are interested in lowering their carbon footprint to appeal to customers and investors alike. Companies create annual sustainability reports that lay out their efforts to have a better environmental impact.
Many businesses have an ESG score, which stands for Environmental, Social, Governance. ESG is a plan that looks at a company’s business practices and creates a score based on their performance related to environmental sustainability, social practices and business governance.
Here at WasteNot, we weigh each compost cart in order to report reliable diversion metrics to our commercial partners. This allows businesses to track the impact of their composting efforts and help them meet their ESG goals. Commercial partners with WasteNot have the added benefits of flexible container size options, as well as quantity and frequency of service to match your business needs. Our online member platform and Commercial Support team are available to make every step of commercial composting easier.
WasteNot commercial partners also have access to the WasteNot Shop with over 700 compostable products to help them transition away from single-use, non-compostable plastic products.
At WasteNot, we work to provide clean, convenient, and compromise-free composting for commercial and residential customers alike.
Are you a business or organization looking to begin composting or transition to compostable products? To learn more about commercial composting services through WasteNot, check out this page.
