EcoRI Earth diverts 40,000 pounds of material from Central Landfill

PROVIDENCE – EcoRI Earth, a residential food scrap-collection program serving Providence and Pawtucket, has diverted 40,000 pounds of nutrient-rich material from the state’s Central Landfill since its inception in June 2013.

Rather than being buried at the landfill, nutrient-rich food scrap from ecoRI Earth customers is delivered to urban farms and subsequently used to create compost to enrich the soil that grows local food, according to ecoRI News, which created ecoRI Earth.

EcoRI serves more than 100 customers, who, in the spring, receive a 5-gallon bucket of compost that they helped to create with their food scraps.

“There is a real need to divert nutrient-rich food scrap from Rhode Island’s shrinking landfill and put the material to use growing food on urban farms,” ecoRI Earth program manager Kevin Proft in a statement. “Our hope is that this small pilot program will spark a conversation about the way the state currently handles food scrap.”

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Rhode Island is set to receive its first anaerobic digester, which will process food scrap from institutions and restaurants. Under a new state composting law that will take effect on Jan. 1, many large-scale universities and food service industries will be mandated to divert their food scraps from the trash.

EcoRI News is a nonprofit media organization that reports on environmental issues in southern New England. The revenue from ecoRI Earth supports a portion of the organization’s general operating cost. Last year, income from ecoRI Earth accounted for 15 percent of its budget, but the founders of ecoRI News never imagined they’d be funding their journalistic ventures with compost when they launched the organization in 2009.

“But we quickly learned that funding for journalism is hard to find,” ecoRI News executive director and co-founder Joanna Detz said in a statement. “So we had to get creative.”

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