What
OffBeet Compost diverts restaurant, household, and commercial food scraps from going to traditional waste facilities (landfills & incinerators) in the Merrimack Valley Region. We collect food scraps and bring them to our local composting site, local farms and anaerobic digestion facilities where scraps are broken down into nutrient rich material. Finished compost is redistributed to participants and also sold to local farmers, gardeners and landscapers.
We are committed to creating a resilient green economy in the Merrimack Valley that generates local green jobs, empowers community members to be land stewards and contributes to an environmentally sustainable and JUST landscape.
Why
The green restaurant and fresh, local, food movement is gaining momentum in the United States. More people are thinking green and seeing the importance of supporting their local farmers. Sourcing food from local farmers markets and Community Supported Agriculture shares connects buyers to farmers, reduces the amount of fossil fuel emissions because of shorter transportation and lowers trash from extra packaging. The more that people buy into the fresh, local, food movement, our economy becomes more sustainable, green and the dollar remains longer within our own communities. OffBeet Compost strives to close the loop from seed to plate, by adding the final dimension of plate to soil into the mixture.
You might wonder why compost when my food will break down in a landfill? Unfortunately the reality is that once food scraps go to a landfill the process works differently. Because oxygen cannot penetrate a mass of waste, it breaks down in a manner that produces methane, a greenhouse gas that has damaging effects on the environment. Conversely, when food scraps are composted, oxygen and beneficial microorganisms help break down food scraps so that they transform into nutrient rich organic matter that can help plants thrive and improve soil structure.
Many people call compost “black gold.” To a farmer and gardener's eye, the dark color of finished compost exudes richness and guarantees healthy plants, a bountiful harvest and nutrient rich soil. When your soil is happy, your belly is happy. If you don’t garden, but care about your environment, when you compost you are helping divert the amount of food that goes to a traditional waste facility and increases the amount of methane in the atmosphere. The average household produces 10 lbs of food scraps per week. That’s almost 500 pounds of food waste per year. With over 38,000 households in the city of Lowell alone, that means that over 19,000,000 pounds of food scraps are damaging our atmosphere rather than contributing to the soil that grows our food, and that's not even including restaurants, grocery stores and schools! Imagine if each household and institution could turn those food scraps into black gold? Composting can generate new jobs, boost soil richness and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. OffBeet Compost believes that it is time for the Merrimack Valley to invest in black gold as its currency to help steer the way towards a greener, thriving economy.
