JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Composting our way to a greener future.
The City of Jacksonville is trying a new way to help restaurants keep food waste out of landfills.
Sunshine Organics & Compost is the first commercial food-waste composting business in Jacksonville.
After opening earlier this year, it partnered with a few businesses in Five Points as part of a pilot program, so I checked in to see how things are going.
"As a restaurant, you go through so much stuff that could be composted, so to have that a part of our program, really fits holistically with what we do anyways," said Homespun Kitchen CEO Aaron Levine.
Levine jumped at the chance to be one of the first businesses to join Jacksonville's commercial composting program.
They have a can with a green liner right in the middle of the kitchen to make sure cooks are remembering to compost what they can.
"There's definitely extra work, but once you get it dialed in, it just becomes a part of your regular operations," said Levine.
Once Sunshine Organics & Compost gets its hands on the kitchen leftovers, they go to work turning it into compost to sell back to farmers.
"The days are getting hotter and hotter every day," said Sunshine Organics & Compost President Mike Kelcourse. "We need to do something, and I think everyone can feel good about composting."
The Five Points pilot program will go for another three months.
After that, CEO Mike Kelcourse feels ready to tackle a bigger challenge - the organic waste from all of Jacksonville's restaurants and grocery stores.
"We have the capacity here to do 60,000 tons of food waste and yard waste per year," said Kelcourse. "We have plenty of room."
Kelcourse envisions a future, at least five to ten years down the road, when folks at home will get an optional composting pick-up alongside their trash and recycling.
"If you look at things in a big scale, it can get overwhelming, so I always tell people, just do your small part," said Kelcourse.
Sunshine Organics & Compost just got a five million dollar USDA grant to add a new biochar machine.
Biochar is charcoal made from anything that grows from the ground when heated with low oxygen. Kelcourse said to think of what's left after a campfire.
He's working with state agencies to use this as a natural filtration for green algae blooms in our waterways.
Once its filtered out, it'll go back to Sunshine Organics & Compost to, you guessed it, get composted.