Portland, Maine Reduces Food Waste in a Common Sense Way

Two Portland, Maine composting services are leading the way for reducing food waste in our city. These projects may be happening in your town, and if they’re not, maybe you can start them!

One is called Zero Food Waste (zerofoodwaste.com). Their motto is “Resurgam”, which is also the City of Portland’s motto. It translates as “I Shall Rise Again.”

This is their mission statement from their website:

“To assist Southern Maine businesses, public institutions, organizations, and residents to reduce our waste footprint, renew our soils, and educate tomorrow’s leaders towards [sic] a sustainable future.”

They compost food waste from such places as restaurants and institutions. Whole Foods in Portland is one of their customers.

The other service is called Garbage to Garden (garbagetogarden.org).

Garbage to Garden is a residential curbside service. They provide a clean container, which you put on the curb along with your trash and recycling on collection day. They take the full container and replace it with a clean one. They ask for a donation of $11.00 a month, or you can become a volunteer instead of paying with cash.

Both of these services are the wave of the future. Food will be composted and returned to the earth the way nature intended. Less food in the landfills, less cost for trash pickup. Fewer plastic bags in the environment. We love it!

In order for humanity to change the way we process trash, everyone needs to participate in innovative ideas like this. Wouldn’t it be great if landfills and non-biodegradable trash became nothing more than an unfortunate memory?