New incentives for restaurants aim to keep food waste out of the Franklin County landfill

Laura Lee readily acknowledges that one plastic bag of cucumber peels and scallion roots won’t change the world.

But the scraps from a recent morning of prep work for her Columbus food truck, Ajumama, were going into a five-gallon bucket that was going into a 65-gallon bin that would go into a dump truck full of food waste that wasn’t going to the Franklin County Sanitary Landfill.

“Every little bit we can do, it doesn’t need to be a big grand gesture,” she said. “Something small is how you get started.”

After testing collection and composting ideas over the past five years with food trucks, food stalls, restaurants and other businesses, the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio plans to expand its efforts to divert more of the estimated 600,000 pounds of business-generated food waste sent to the landfill every day.

SWACO officials plan several new business initiatives that range from free compost buckets to reimbursement for the first six months of food-waste hauling services. The agency also will offer technical assistance to help businesses set up composting programs, donate edible, unused food to charity, and reduce food waste from the outset.

“We’re there to help throughout the entire process,” said Sara Gallagher, SWACO’s food waste program administrator.

Lee encouraged the creation of a pilot program that SWACO funded through the Economic and Community Development Institute, a Columbus nonprofit whose programs include support services for food trucks. ECDI provided food-scrap buckets to truck owners, provided drop-off space at its Food Fort on the Near East Side, and paid for pickup and composting services of an outside vendor.

About a dozen participating trucks sent an average of 500 pounds of organic waste — fruit and vegetable trimmings, meat scraps and bones, coffee grounds, even some paper towels and paper plates — to composting sites instead of the landfill every week.

“I knew there were enough of us that it would be worthwhile, even if we could get someone to just come pick up buckets,” Lee said.

SWACO has initiated other efforts to curb the amount of food waste sent to the landfill, where it causes two environmental problems: It takes up a lot of space because it doesn’t get the oxygen and sunlight required to decompose properly, and it’s also a source of methane gas that contributes to global warming.

The agency set a goal in 2020 of reducing food waste going into the landfill by half over this decade. Homes and businesses throw away 1 million pounds of food every day. It represents 15% of all landfill-bound trash.

Spokeswoman Hanna Greer-Brown said SWACO will conduct an official study of its progress toward that goal later this year, but it documented 170 million pounds of food waste diverted from the landfill in 2023.

There are more than 30 sites across Franklin County today where people can drop off food waste collected in their homes. Another new SWACO initiative will help municipalities with less than three collection sites set up more.

SWACO has helped food-service businesses navigate health standards and government rules to donate more of their leftovers and unused inventory to charities and people in need. Educational efforts have focused on teaching consumers and restaurant managers to prevent food waste by planning their purchases more carefully.

Jacob Freisthler, director of food incubation services at ECDI, said the act of setting aside food scraps and unused food for composting gave the pilot participants in his agency’s food-truck program a hands-on lesson in wiser purchasing.

Another part of SWACO’s new initiative is called Fresh Takes, a website with resources articles, recipes, videos, and tips to help residents reduce the amount of food they waste. Topics include using what’s in the cupboard and refrigerator, proper freezing and storage techniques to make leftovers last, and understanding best-by and use-by dates.

Fresh Takes is on the web at savemorethanfood.org/freshtakes.

Dining Reporter Bob Vitale can be reached at rvitale@dispatch.com or at @dispatchdining on the Instagram social platform.