Closing the Loop Through Food Scrap Recycling & Composting

1:00 pm – Concurrent Session 2c

Presented By: Josh Kelly, Highfields Institute.

Composting is no longer an activity that concerns only gardeners. Solid waste reduction, global warming, and soil fertility concern us all. As cities, towns, regions, and entire states move toward more sustainable solid waste treatment models, there is growing awareness of the need for effective composting programs to reduce our carbon footprint and provide closed loops to recycle our food scraps and organic “waste”. Highfields Center for Composting's Close the Loop composting programs can help your business recognize environmental, economic, and community benefits including: reducing your trash by as much as 30-60% or more, reducing your greenhouse gas emissions, and contributing to the local economy and the food security of your community. If all Vermonters composted their food scraps, it would provide a carbon offset equivalent to NOT burning 12 MILLION gallons of gas each year. Come learn about the benefits of composting and the future of this sustainable business practice to add value from a customer, and even an employee, standpoint.

Josh Kelly recently joined Highfields' Institute after 7 years of work in land conservation, protecting farms and forestland in Vermont and New Hampshire. Josh works on the implementation of Highfields' Close the Loop program, an effort to establish community composting programs throughout the state by 2017.