Metcalfe’s Produce Departments are now
“Zero Waste”!
It’s not waste unless you waste it. We kicked off 2012 by launching a zero waste initiative with Purple Cow Organics at our Hilldale and Wauwatosa stores (West soon to follow). Every week, biodegradable co-products from our produce departments are being transported to a local facility where they are converted into premium compost. These residuals provide valuable moisture and nutrients useful in the process of making great compost. An enlivened soil food web means healthier, tastier, more bountiful harvests for our community.
For a number of years, Purple Cow Organics successfully repurposed food “waste” headed for Milwaukee area landfills into a valuable moisture and nitrogen component used in the production of great compost. Purple Cow is now bringing this environmentally friendly advancement to the Dane County region.
A recent study shows that organic food waste represents more than 65% of the waste produced by grocery stores. Composting one ton of food waste prevents generating 1,600 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalents from the landfill and the storing of 480 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalents in the soil. At Metcalfe’s Hilldale alone, we are composting two tons of organic produce waste per week.
Purple Cow Organics currently accommodates: fruits, vegetables, grains, starches and coffee grounds. Items excluded at the present time include meats, dairy products, staples, plastics or rubber bands. Today Metcalfe’s composts fruits, vegetables and coffee grounds from our stores weekly. After we begin composting produce at our newest store, Metcalfe’s West (opened 1.12.12), we plan to expand to our Bakery departments.
"We're going to make sure this is done right. Quality in. Quality out." Tim Metcalfe, President
Landfills are filling up. In the year 2000, each person in the United States threw away approximately 4.5 pounds of waste each day, totalling 231.9 million tons of municipal solid waste.
Food scraps accounted for 11.2% of that landfill weight, amounting to 25.9 million tons of food waste produced in the U.S. in 2001.
Landfill costs continue to increase; now more than ever it makes sense to repurpose the nutrients from foods no longer suitable for human consumption, back into soil, back into the network that produces more food.
Soil Degradation
The National Academy of Sciences estimates that U.S. cropland is eroding at 10 times the rate that it forms, and the United Nations has warned that soil degradation is a global crisis.
The Earth is covered with an average of only three feet of topsoil, the layer of dirt that provides the nutrients for most of the planet's land vegetation, and is critical for producing food from agriculture. Healthy topsoil is a home to billions of beneficial microorganisms per handful, in addition to nutrients, fungi and worms that are critical to healthy plant life. But it forms very slowly, at a rate of only an inch or two per several hundred years. And around the world, topsoil is vanishing much faster than it forms.
"The estimate is that we are now losing about 1 percent of our topsoil every year to erosion, most of this caused by agriculture," said David Montgomery, a geologist at the University of Washington and the author of the book "Dirt."
- The U.S. food system consumes ten times more energy than it produces in food energy. This disparity is made possible by non-renewable fossil fuel stocks. Buying locally-grown foods should be the first priority when it comes to saving fossil fuel.
- It takes 500 years to replace 1 inch of topsoil. In a natural environment, topsoil is built up by decaying plant matter and weathering rock, and it is protected from erosion by growing plants. In soil made susceptible by agriculture, erosion is reducing productivity up to 65% each year.
- Former prairie lands, which constitute the bread basket of the United States, have lost one half of their topsoil after farming for about 100 years. This soil is eroding 30 times faster than the natural formation rate.
- Food crops are much hungrier than the natural grasses that once covered the Great Plains. As a result, the remaining topsoil is increasingly depleted of nutrients. Soil erosion and mineral depletion removes about $20 billion worth of plant nutrients from U.S. agricultural soils every year.
Compost Tea – Say What? Whether you’re managing turf, tulips, tomatillos, or trees, compost tea is increasingly recognized as a valuable practice in building soil fertility and plant health. From university trials to commercial applications, results show that by sufficiently restoring soil biology, Mother Nature does a darn good job cycling nutrients, suppressing disease, and promoting plant growth. Click here to learn more.
Look for Purple Cow Organics Activated Compost for your garden in our stores this spring!
