For several years, the Center for EcoTechnology (CET) has been working with Rhode Island businesses and institutions to help them implement strategies for reducing their wasted food, with funding from 11th Hour Racing’s grant program, funded by the Schmidt Family Foundation, and the EPA. The program, also made possible with funding from an EPA Healthy Communities grant, will continue to fund CET’s waste reduction efforts through 2023.
In the last year alone, CET reached over 300 stakeholders and worked directly with nearly a dozen Rhode Island businesses. As food accounts for 35% of all landfill waste in Rhode Island, CET strives to create a streamlined marketplace in Rhode Island where businesses and institutions can collaboratively prevent, donate, and divert wasted food.
With CET’s help, Midtown Oyster Bar and Surf Club, located in Newport, established a system for recycling their food scraps and implemented dual-language (English and Spanish) materials and signage throughout their establishment. Another restaurant, Diego’s Middletown, began a partnership with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center, where they donate surplus edible food.
Two Rhode Island schools also received assistance from CET: Barrington Farm School and Birchwood Middle School. Barrington Farm School expanded its composting efforts so it could take on food scraps generated by the local community. Birchwood Middle School, with the help of the Rhode Island Schools Recycling Club, implemented a variety of sustainability initiatives, such as a school-wide scraps collection program and a new greenhouse for the school’s vegetable garden.
Atlantic Cape Fisheries approached CET for solutions for diverting from the landfill the over 7,000 tons of clamshells they produced in a year. In addition to composting, they explored using clamshells in fertilizer, driveways, reef and oyster bed rejuvenation, and more. Apponaug Brewing Company, located in Warwick, Rhode Island, sought CET’s help in identifying strategies for reducing waste and saving money. The breweryimplemented new portion sizes for their fries when they realized the volume that went uneaten, established a reuse program for can toppers that could not otherwise be recycled, and trained their employees in their new waste reduction practices.
CET also co-hosted three meetings for restaurants and food-permitted businesses across the state with Clean Ocean Access and Zero Waste Providence. The meeting series highlighted success stories from peers that established prevention, donation, and composting programs. These meetings showcased the statewide interest and momentum to assist food-permitted businesses in implementing wasted food solutions.
11th Hour Racing’s grant is a part of Health Soils Healthy Seas Rhode Island, a composting program that aims to inspire long-lasting, environmentally responsible behavior necessary to improve ocean health. The program has also worked with collaborators such as the Compost Plant and Black Earth Compost.
Informed by the work they did in Rhode Island, CET produced several educational resources, including a video highlighting the importance of food donation in the state with support from EPA Region 1. While the video is currently in English, the organization is in the process of making the message available in Spanish and Portuguese. Despite challenges, such as the pandemic, CET and Rhode Island businesses and institutions made a lasting impact on reducing the state’s commercial food waste and will continue to do so.