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Each year, Americans throw out 400 pounds of food per person. Here are three composters who are thinking about the soil as well as better food waste systems. 

Sashti Balasundaram

Entrepreneur,

WeRadiate is a Brooklyn, New York-based company with the goal of improving soil health. Started by Sashti Balasundaram, WeRadiate implements its mission through education, technology, and the creation or enhancement of compost systems. Balasundaram has created smart sensors to collect data from composting operations, with the aim of improving the process at different partner sites in New York City, New York state, and California. 

The sensors measure the temperatures of compost that is processing to make sure that the pile stays between 131鈥�160 degrees Fahrenheit for 7鈥�11 days to ensure pathogens and bad bacteria are burned off.  

Balasundaram also sees composting as an opportunity for job creation. . Instead of processing garbage locally, are the ultimate destination for that waste. 

鈥淲e know a third of it is organics,鈥� Balasundaram says. 鈥淪o let鈥檚 think of reallocating a lot of that funding toward local composting programs or funding people to do that work.鈥� 

Jae Lee

Urban Farmer and Composter

To Jae Lee, composting is at its best when it is a community activity.

In September 2020, she expanded the composting program at Phoenix Community Garden in Brooklyn, New York, from a small, two-hot-box effort to an operation that involves community members and local cafes and bars. Lee and volunteers pick up food scraps and coffee grounds throughout the week from the eateries.  

Every Saturday, Phoenix Community Garden hosts a farm stand where people from the neighborhood pick up CSA (community supported agriculture) bags and drop off their food scraps. 

Lee also teaches community members how to prepare their food scraps for processing, which doesn鈥檛 involve sticking food scraps in the freezer or letting them rot. 

鈥淚 tell people, 鈥楧on鈥檛 bring me your frozen, rotting food,鈥欌�� Lee says.   

One form of composting involves mixing 鈥渂rowns,鈥� or carbon-based materials like wood shavings, with nitrogen-heavy materials鈥攆ood scraps, or 鈥済reens.鈥� 

Lee and the volunteers send customers home with wood shavings to mix with their food scraps in whatever receptacle they have鈥�5-gallon food-grade buckets tend to work best.

鈥淓veryone is a composter at heart,鈥� Lee says. 

Anne Bijur

Environmental Specialist for the state of Vermont 

Vermont鈥檚 Universal Recycling Law fully took effect in July 2020, when landfills could no longer accept organic waste.

鈥淭here are other states that have food scrap laws, but Vermont is unique in that we鈥檙e the or organic material,鈥� says Anne Bijur, an environmental analyst in the state鈥檚 Waste Management and Prevention Division.  

Bijur works on a five-person team, along with other government offices, stewarding the implementation of the recycling law, which was passed in 2012 and phased in over eight years. Residents of Vermont have three options to take care of their food scraps: They can compost at home, bring their food scraps to a drop-off site and transfer station, or arrange for private curbside collection. 

The law has had some surprisingly positive results, such as increased donations of food to food banks and the creation of jobs in transporting food scraps. 

鈥淧eople are like, 鈥楬ey, this is a business opportunity. I鈥檝e got a station wagon or I鈥檝e got a pickup truck,鈥欌�� Bijur says. 鈥淭o get a hauling permit is pretty inexpensive, so that鈥檚 exciting.鈥�