Sustainable NCW releases organics management video series

WENATCHEE  — Sustainable NCW has released the first three videos in an educational series designed to help North Central Washington businesses, schools and other organizations divert organic waste from landfills.

The Organics Management Education series provides information on Washington's organics management requirements and examples of how local organizations are separating food and other organic waste for composting. Additional videos are planned.

Washington lawmakers passed an organics management law in 2022 that established goals including reducing methane emissions associated with food waste sent to landfills. The law calls for a 75% reduction in organic material disposed of in landfills by 2030, according to Sustainable NCW.

A Business Organics Management Area covering all of Chelan County and portions of Douglas and Grant counties has been established under the law. Within the area, businesses, schools and large events generating more than 96 gallons of organic waste per week are required to separate organic material for composting rather than send it to a landfill.

Sustainable NCW said a recent waste audit found organic waste accounted for more than one-quarter of material entering the Greater Wenatchee Regional Landfill.

The first video, "Here's the Dirt," explains the state's organics requirements and examines how diverting organic material from landfills can reduce methane emissions. It also follows organic waste sent to Winton Mfg. Compost Works, where the material is converted into compost for use in gardens, orchards and farms.

Two other videos focus on businesses and schools that began separating organic waste before being required to do so.

"What's Cooking" features Mia Abbott, general manager of Munchen Haus, and Micah Roberson, owner of McGlinn's. The video examines the systems the restaurants use to collect organic material while maintaining their normal operations, including employee training, signage and collection practices.

"Lunchroom Leaders" focuses on students from kindergarten through high school separating organic material from trash after meals. School staff discuss how students learn sorting procedures at the beginning of the school year.

"If they can see the soil, and if they know what they have done helped create that soil, you feel even more proud [of students’ good work of organics separation]," Peshastin-Dryden Elementary School Principal Emily Ross says in the video.

Sustainable NCW and videographer P2X Studio are producing additional videos covering proper sorting, employee training and reducing contamination in compost. Planned topics also include compostable and noncompostable packaging and organics management at community events.

The project was funded in part through a Washington State Department of Ecology Public Participation Grant.

The videos are available on Sustainable NCW's Organics Education webpage at sustainablencw.org/organicseducation.