If you are reading this article, you most likely realize that humanity needs to
find and implement decarbonization solutions, in massive numbers, at a global
scale, starting yesterday, if we are going to avoid the most calamitous effects
of climate change. The 2018 UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
report estimates that the world has only 12 years to cut greenhouse gas
emissions by half. Accelerating the pace of deployment of high-tech solutions,
from renewable energy to large-capacity storage batteries, gets most of the
attention.
But not all difference-making carbon-reduction solutions come from the high-tech
arena. Something as low-tech as the composting of food
waste
will, if done at scale, improve the health of our soils and seas — in truth, our
entire environment — along with delivering those crucial, significant climate
change benefits.
One potentially groundbreaking solution in this arena is being piloted on
Aquidneck Island, Rhode Island, home to Newport — iconic capital of
sailing in the US.
Here, Dave McLaughlin — a lifelong bodyboarder, weather-o-phile and former
IT professional at Hasbro —
helped launch the nonprofit Clean Ocean
Access in the mid-2000s. His goal then was
to increase public access to local beaches, many of which were restricted. He
believed that people had to be able to visit the beaches to be inspired to take
action to combat the sewage spills and shoreline waste that plagued and continue
to bedevil Aquidneck Island.
“People have to be connected to the ocean, but if you can’t get there, you’re
not going to care,” McLaughlin related. “And once you’re able to visit the shore
and become involved in cleaning up debris, engaging in conversations about
waste, you’re more likely to care about climate change.”
Clean Ocean Access soon realized that an integrated approach to shoreline and
ocean health was necessary.
“The condition of the island’s waterways does not depend solely on the
cleanliness of the beaches and on what’s dumped into the ocean,” McLaughlin
noted. “Excessive carbon in the atmosphere that enters our oceans, which fuels
ocean acidification and adds to climate change, is a big problem, as well. An
efficient way to solve this is to store carbon in the soil before it ever gets
to the water. If we’re going to solve for beach and ocean cleanliness, as well
as climate change and ocean acidification — and we certainly have to do it all —
then we have to acknowledge that the health of our soil is crucial.”
The organization began to walk the healthy-soil walk in 2018 when it, along with
several partners, launched Healthy Soils Healthy Seas Rhode Island
(HSHSRI). The initiative aims to make composting as commonplace as taking
out the trash — first on Aquidneck Island, then throughout Rhode Island and then
beyond.
McLaughlin and the HSHSRI team had a tall task ahead.
“Almost 33 percent of waste that goes to the landfill in Rhode Island comes from
organic matter, mostly food, and less than one percent of our food waste is
composted,” McLaughlin lamented. “We also don’t appreciate the massive amounts
of low-to-no-value materials we throw in the trash — think plastic bags, and
much more. So we were clear-eyed about this: Our waste footprint on the island
is horrible; we saw ourselves as the problem. We also knew we needed to be the
solution.”
HSHSRI knew that, if much of that food waste could be diverted from landfill by
composting, the health of the region’s soils and waterways would improve. And
that would just be the start of a powerful positive feedback loop.
-
Storing the carbon from the compost makes the soil
healthier
— along with the produce than emanates from it.
-
Replacing fossil fuel-based, synthetic fertilizers with compost reduces
greenhouse gas emissions.
-
Diverting food waste from landfill leads to a reduction in the amount of
methane in the atmosphere — methane being a far more potent greenhouse gas
than CO₂ — and carbon in the ocean.
-
Healthier, cleaner, less-carbon intense water makes for cleaner rain, which
makes for healthier soils.
Talk about a win-win-win-win. Maybe I missed a win in there, but you get the
idea.
Before HSHSRI launched last fall, composting was basically not a thing on
Aquidneck Island, save for a backyard composter here or there. So, the team
urged local residents and restaurateurs to get their hands dirty.
“We showed our neighbors how to literally pull food waste out of the trash,”
McLaughlin recalled.
At the program’s launch, attended by Rhode Island’s two US senators, Sheldon
Whitehouse and Jack Reed, a four-pronged composting program — curbside,
market
drop-off,
restaurant
and backyard — was announced, and a local composting industry was midwifed.
HSHSRI teamed up with local services Rhodeside Revival for residential
compost pickup and The Compost Plant to work with restaurants. Aquidneck
Community Table, a local farmers market
organization, continued to collect food scraps at the farmers market, and
offered workshops and starter kits for backyard composters through its
brilliantly named YIMBY (Yes in My Backyard) initiative.
Image credit: 11th Hour Racing
Since composting is a startup venture for the entire island, there’s nowhere to
go but up.
“Our plan is to make a big push to sign up individuals and restaurants this
summer,” McLaughlin projects. “On the restaurant side, we expect to get 60 of
the 1,500 restaurants composting, or four percent, by the end of the summer. We
think we can get a similar percentage on the residential end, from curbside and
backyard, by the end of 2019. That means about 1,500 of our 37,000 households
would be composting. This should scale quickly — a 20 percent compost rate is
our target for 2020.”
HSHSRI was boosted with $300,000 from 11th Hour
Racing’s
grant program, which is funded by The Schmidt Family Foundation. 11th Hour
Racing works with the sailing community and maritime industries to advance
solutions and practices that protect and restore the health of our oceans.
“We’re really excited about the Healthy Soils Healthy Seas Rhode Island’s
composting project,” said Michelle Carnevale, Program Manager at 11th Hour
Racing. “The fact that it’s a simple practice that’s accessible by everyone in
their own backyards or communities is very appealing. And, until now, it’s been
hard to make the connection to island residents that dumping food waste into
landfills leads to the release of methane into the atmosphere, which leads to
increased atmospheric temperatures, which leads to increased ocean
acidification. HSHSRI’s composting program, and the education that goes with it,
makes these linkages much more digestible. And that makes climate change seem a
bit less overwhelming.”
McLaughlin’s goals for HSHSRI are audacious: “Over the next two to five years,
we plan to eliminate food waste from the Aquidneck Island waste system
completely. We expect to eliminate plastic
waste,
as well, and dramatically increase our recycling rates. But that’s just a start.
We plan to build a sweeping awareness of what will still go to trash — the
low-to-no-value waste problem — and then how to solve it.”
With a year-round population of 60,000, Aquidneck Island is an ideal testing
ground. But for the program to make a difference, it needs to scale — and fast.
Clean Ocean Access and 11th Hour Racing sound like they’re up for the challenge.
“We see HSHSRI as a signal to the state of Rhode Island that we need to keep
food waste out of landfill,” McLaughlin asserted. “Doing so will spawn new
businesses and be an economic winner. Rhode Island should be a leader on this,
as so much of our state is coastline. We’re in touch with the Director of
Environmental Management; Governor Raimondo is aware of what we’re doing, as
are our other statewide electeds.”
To Carnevale, HSHSRI could someday morph into HSHSUSA: “This really should
serve as a pilot program for the rest of the country. In so doing, composting
will become as well-known and as pervasive as recycling. And it will become
clearer than ever that everything we do on land has an impact on the ocean.”
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Lew Blaustein writes and edits the GreenSportsBlog, the source for news and commentary about the ever more crowded intersection of sustainability + sports.
Published May 7, 2019 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST