Food scraps can seem pretty useless, what do you do with them? Throw them out? Well there's a program in Lansing that makes use of them.
They take useless inedible food scraps like egg shells, stems and other parts you can’t it.
And turn it into compost.
"We're able to reintroduce it back into growing plants and gardens and lawns, making good use of it rather than throwing it away," Cliff Walkington with Hammond Farms says.
The program works with local businesses, collecting scraps. From there they give it to Hammond Farms, who mix it with sawdust and yard waste to create a compost that can help any gardener.
"It really increases the health of your soil, makes plants thrive in it," Walkington said.
And according to Natalie Molnar, the program coordinator. It's a lot healthier for the environment to make compost than to let food sit in the trash.
"What happens when the food and organic material goes into the landfill is that it converts into methane which is actually worse than carbon for our environment and our atmosphere," Molnar said.
Scraps to Soil has been operating for six months and is on a one year trial run funded by a grant. They've collected around 300 tons of scraps from more than twenty local businesses that are involved so far. Sparrow is the biggest contributor of scraps. They fill up 12 giant bins twice a week.
"It feels great and we didn't really have to change our practices in terms of day to day workflow,” Michele Nikolai with Sparrow Hospital said. “We were going to put the scraps in a bin anyway. So now we're putting them in a bin that we know contributes to soil that's going to make more food. So it's a win-win."
Molnar says the businesses participating are enjoying it and their employees feel like they're making a difference. The program just recently filled up its remaining spots in the middle of May. Molnar says she was surprised that more businesses didn't hop on board sooner.
"People have been a little hesitant to try it, it's something new. When you're running a business, things are tight, budgets are tight, schedules are tight staff might not be open to trying something," Molnar said.
She says once they do give it a try, it's all gone smoothly. She says it can even limit a trash bill depending on how many scraps they create. She says even though the spots are filled up, the end goal is to spread awareness to the community.
"We also hope to see it translate to residents and their awareness of food scraps. And changing their perception on it from being something that's just seen as a waste product to something that's actually a resource," Molnar said.
To keep Lansing a little greener.
