Recipient Organization
FAIRBANKS SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT
590 UNIVERSITY AVE STE 2
FAIRBANKS,AK 997093662
Performing Department
NA
Non Technical Summary
The Fairbanks Soil and Water Conservation District (FSWCD) will improve and expand existing food waste reduction and diversion practices by completing three goals. The first goal states that FSWCD will implement new food waste reduction and diversion practices to expand Fairbanks' existing food recovery system with respect to the EPA's Wasted Food Scale. The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, created the scale to illustrate the most preferred food waste reduction and diversion pathways based on each pathway's potential environmental impacts. The scale lists food waste prevention as the most desirable pathway. The project director will host workshops focused on reducing food waste and distribute educational materials at multiple outreach events. The project director will track the number of individuals educated on food waste reduction, counted as workshop attendees and people who receive educational materials. The second tier of the Wasted Food Scale is to "donate" or "upcycle" food fit for human consumption to underserved members of the community. Our partnership with the Fairbanks Community Food Bank (FCFB) will address this tier. FCFB will handle all pre-consumer collection and FSWCD will collect what is not fit for human consumption for compost. The project director will measure the food waste collected from FCFB in pounds of food waste. Additionally, FSWCD will pick up food bank donations in conjunction with our curbside food waste collection. This will be reported through pounds of food recovered for human consumption.The third pathway on the Waste Food Scale is to feed animals with food waste. FSWCD identified freezer-burnt, but otherwise high-quality, meat as a notable gap in the existing food recovery structure. Many Alaskans participate in hunting and fishing which produces scraps in the processing phase and usually freezer-burnt meat in the next few years. Often households have some fish or meat remaining from last year's harvest as they empty the freezer to create space for their fresh catch. Regulations prevent FCFB from accepting this kind of donation as they are not processed in a DEC-approved kitchen. FSWCD will partner with Waste Me Naught (WMN) to host a food-safe collection site for frozen meat and fish to use as supplemental sled dog food for dog mushers. This will establish a permanent, free drop-off location for anyone in the community to bring old, freezer-burnt, or scrap meat in chest freezers for mushers to collect at their convenience. WMN staff will be on- site to monitor and will track how many pounds of food waste is used for animal feed. The final Wasted Food Scale tier addressed by this project recommends composting. This project aims to find a solution that can translate to rural native villages so food waste at this tier will be composted. FSWCD will implement 3 food waste collection methods and install an Intermodal Earth Flow Composting System to divert food waste from landfills and generate compost. FSWCD staff will evaluate public acceptance of the 3 collection methods and make changes to ensure project sustainability. FSWCD will offer a curbside food waste collection option for a low price. Staff will provide buckets to all households enrolled in the collection service and collect the food waste weekly to be composted. This collection method will be evaluated by the number of residential participants in the municipal collection of food scraps. Our partner organization, Golden Heart Waste Management (GHWM), will offer commercial and large-scale collection services. The project director will work with another project partner, Green Star of Interior Alaska (GSIA), to establish a free community drop-off location for individuals to bring food waste for compost. It is important to maintain equity and accessibility by offering a cost- free option in a central location. The amount of food waste accrued from all 3 collection methods will be weighed and tracked as the amount of food waste used for composting. The collected food waste will be transported to the compost system. The system is built into a 40-foot-long shipping container and contains an auger, temperature probe, aeration system, and other features. The enclosed system allows a loader operator to load a mixture of food waste and local waste sawdust into the system. Over 14 days the system shreds and turns the feedstocks with the auger, ensures the compost maintains adequate oxygen levels with an aeration system, and monitors the temperature. After 2 weeks, the operator removes the compost from the other end and pile to cure. At this point, the compost has completed the active or thermal phase and still must cure in a pile for one to two months. However, there is no additional labor required. The Earth Flow system prevents odor and minimizes the amount of labor needed to process the food waste and create high-quality compost. The minimal associated labor costs will allow the system to continue sustainably without further federal funding. This also makes it a desirable option for rural communities with limited resources. The system can process up to one ton of food waste daily and create high- quality finished compost within three months, a perfect time frame for Interior Alaska's short summer season. Project staff will conduct small-scale winter trials to test the true temperature threshold of the system to determine closing dates for future seasons. Productivity will be evaluated by measuring how many pounds of compost are produced. The finished compost will be sold in small and bulk quantities and tracked by the amount sold. Staff will ensure agricultural producers have access to the finished compost and assistance with application to reduce fertilizer use and improve soil quality. Staff will collaborate with the food bank to create a cost-break program for agricultural producers. Anyone who donates fresh grown produce to the Food is Medicine program will receive a compost coupon. The FSWCD soil specialist will also be available to assist producers with compost and fertilizer use recommendations to explain how to use compost to benefit soil health and reduce fertilizer costs. FSWCD will donate compost to local community gardens that donate a percentage of their harvest to the food bank. This will be evaluated by counting the number of producers receiving compost. FSWCD will continue their "Backyard Composting Program" in which anyone in the community can attend a free composting workshop and receive their choice of composter. Progress will be evaluated by the number of households who receive a composter. This project will create a zero-waste-oriented cooperative of businesses, groups, and organizations to share ideas and resources. Each existing entity occupies a certain niche in the local food system which allows and encourages collaboration to reduce, recover, and recycle the maximum amount of food waste. This will encourage waste management business development by using grant funds to cover one-time costs of capacity- building resources. The project director and relevant project partners will host interested tribal leaders and business leaders for tours of the functioning Intermodal Earth Flow System and share winter operation data to investigate if it could be a good fit. FSWCD staff, along with Green Mountain Technologies staff, will assist with funding research and transport logistics to expand composting across more rural areas of Interior Alaska. This effort will be tracked by the number of leaders we host for tours and meetings in addition to narrative-style reporting on any progress with installing additional systems. FSWCD will provide technical support to interested parties to assist them in establishing additional compost systems. The project director will assess any progress at these satellite facilities by measuring the amount of compost produced by weight.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
This project will achieve three major goals listed below and broken up into smaller, quantifiable objectives.Reduce and divert food waste with respect to the EPA Wasted Food Scale. Encourage food waste reduction through educational initiatives open to all demographics. Project staff will reach up to 500 people throughout the grant cycle through free workshops, information at community events, and electronic information dissemination.Recover donations not fit for human consumption from the Fairbanks Community Food Bank. Project staff will not collect pre-consumer food waste from grocery stores to avoid composting food that is fit for human consumption. The food bank will collect and sort all pre-consumer food waste and what they deem unfit for human or animal consumption will be composted. Project staff will measure collections in pounds but will measure this deliverable by percentage of calls they respond to and collect with the hope that there will not be many unusable food bank donations. Project staff will accept 80% of the food waste offered from the food bank.Solicit food donations for the Fairbanks Community Food Bank in conjunction with curbside compost pick up. Project staff and volunteers will collect food bank donations from any household participating in the curbside food waste pick ups to ensure households are intentionally separating their food waste with respect to the EPA Wasted Food Scale. Project staff and volunteers will accept and deliver 100% of the food bank donations provided by curbside pick-up customers and track the donations by weight.Host a food safe collection site for frozen meat and fish to use as supplemental dog food for dog mushers in partnership with Waste Me Naught. Project staff will purchase and install solar powered chest freezers for community members to drop off freezer-burnt or open packages of frozen meat that the food bank is unable to accept. Project partner Don Carroll from Waste Me Naught will manage collection and distribution of up to 1,000 lbs of meat.Divert food waste not fit for human or animal consumption to the large-scale compost system established through this project. Project partners, staff, and volunteers will collect and compost up to 150 tons of food waste.Create a zero-waste cooperative of businesses and organizations to share ideas and resources to promote growth of these entities in Fairbanks. Project staff will recruit up to six representatives across disciplines for this cooperative. Produce local compost to support agricultural producers in growing more food for the community while maintaining healthy soil.Collect food waste from individuals, organizations, and businesses for composting. Evaluate public acceptance of various collection methods including drop-off, household curbside collection, backyard composting, and commercial collection. Project partners, staff, and volunteers will collect and compost up to 150 tons of food waste.Establish a large scale composting facility. Sort, process, compost, and cure municipal food waste to create high quality compost for sale in Fairbanks. Project staff, partners, and volunteers will produce 315 cubic yards of compost.Promote both small quantity and bulk compost sales to ensure compost is accessible. Staff will offer bulk sales on-site at the facility and small quantity sales at local outreach events and at the FSWCD office.Donate some compost to projects benefiting underserved communities to ensure compost access is equitable. Project staff will select up to 3 community garden projects per year to donate compost.Prioritize compost sales to agricultural producers through cost-break programs, outreach, and soil health recommendations. Project staff will offer a cost-break program in partnership with the food bank in which local producers who donate fresh, locally grown produce to the "Food is Medicine" program will receive a coupon for a reduced price on compost. Staff and volunteers will distribute up to 50 coupons per year. FSWCD's soil specialist will also include compost information with soil health recommendations to encourage local agricultural producers to integrate compost application into their soil management practices.Continue FSWCD's "Backyard Composting Program" in which participants attend a free composting workshop and receive a household composter. The workshops will be publicly available and serve at least 40 households per year.Create a model to promote composting in remote communities in subarctic Alaska.Host tours and informational sessions with businesses and tribal leaders to promote composting among tribes, villages, and other remote locations. Project staff and partners will reach out to at least ten representatives from remote areas to attend a tour and receive information.Provide technical support to all interested communities to establish additional compost systems.
Project Methods
Project staff and partners will use a combination of workshops, experiential learning opportunities, extension, and outreach to increase composting knowledge in Interior Alaska. Staff will host up to three workshops per summer to support our Backyard Composting Program. These workshops will focus on sharing the knowledge necessary to have a successful home compost pile for any interested people in the Fairbanks North Star Borough. This will involve aspects of experiential learning as participants will work together to build a layered compost pile from common feedstocks they may see at home. They will have the opportunity to ask questions and share experiences with other participants. Staff will also host tours and demonstrations at the compost facility to give leaders from surrounding opportunities the chance to work with the Earth Flow system and assess the feasibility of the system in their communities. Staff will also use extension and outreach techniques to share information about the services provided by this project and composting in general. Some of this outreach will be directed towards local agricultural producers to share more technical knowledge about composting as it relates to soil management to encourage healthier soils.Our evaluation plan involves surveys for qualitative data and tracking measurable quantitative milestones. Project staff and partners will routinely survey community members about their experience with organic waste hauling to determine possible changes and improvements. Staff will solicit qualitative feedback from all project partners, volunteers, and groups involved in project activities to pair with the quantitative data collected. Project partners will be responsible for preparing narrative reports detailing the successes, failures, and lessons learned during their facets of the project. The quantitative data we will focus on is outlined in the objectives. Staff and partners will use scales to weigh the collected food waste and compost generated. Waste Me Naught will track the amount of meat donated for animal feed by weight. The Fairbanks Community Food Bank volunteers will weigh the food donations collected through the curbside organics collection.Project staff will quantify the number of people reached by tracking the number of people who attend events, participate in the Backyard Composting Program, utilize the free community organics drop-off, sign-up for the curbside hauling, and purchase compost. Staff will track business participation as well. The amount of compost sold will be tracked in cubic feet and compared to the amount of compost produced.