Waste and Recycling

Food Scrap Composting Outreach Program
Client: Snohomish County, WA
Cascadia has worked with Snohomish County since 2008 to recruit schools and food-generating businesses to participate in a food scrap recycling program, with the intent of decreasing the amount of compostable material entering the county’s waste stream. Recruitment focused on interested schools and on businesses that had the potential to divert food waste, such as restaurants, chain grocery stores, hotels, hospitals, retirement homes, strip mall property managers, and the Snohomish County Corrections Facility. For each interested entity, Cascadia conducted on-site meetings and walkthroughs to determine current waste set-up and capacity, used a Cascadia-developed calculator tool to estimate tonnage diversion and cost savings, provided recommendations, and helped implement the program through training and follow-up. Results include initiating food scrap collection service with over 70 businesses and 12 schools.
 


« Back

Cascadia began to immediately overhaul the way Resource Venture services were marketed, delivered, and tracked; ultimately resulting in superior outcomes. Among the dramatic changes we noted were (1) an increased level of accountability; (2) a more strategic focus; and (3) service documentation that demonstrated a more effective and efficient program. In particular, Cascadia’s “targeting and tracking” database made it possible to focus on the biggest commercial resources users with the greatest potential for conservation, and then measure their progress over time. The program’s unique targeted approach is extremely cost-effective; Cascadia has helped reduce the City’s program costs from about $100/ton diverted in 2006 to about $45/ton in 2008.


- Phil Paschke, Seattle Public Utilities