Green :: Food Composting

The first things that come to mind when I hear the word "recycling" are newspapers, plastic bottles, and soda cans. But I usually don't think about recycling food scraps.

Food is actually the second heaviest waste stream in our landfills. And the cafeteria within Hallmark (The Crown Room) feeds a few thousand people each day, you can imagine that there will be food waste. So, we're doing something about it!

Here is how it works: Each year, Hallmark’s kitchen workers scrap the food, paper and bones off dishes into a sink with a grinder. It comes out on the other end as 130 tons of kitchen waste, which is ground into compost. The result: organic compost free of pesticides and herbicides, which feeds a local rain garden of native Missouri plants.

Click on this video link to watch a recent news spot by NBC Action News (KC NBC affiliate) on Hallmark's Food Composting initiative (there is a 15 second advertisement, and then the story will start).