How Composting Supports the Circular Economy: Insights from The Urban Canopy
Photo by SHVETS production on Pexels.
During Compost Awareness week, it is important to examine how composting fits into the larger environmental picture and also reflect on where we as individuals or companies contribute to conservation in this way. Below is an article written by our friends at The Urban Canopy that takes a closer look at how we can create a circular economy for food and food waste.
The Environment We’re Working With
Our society is largely based on a linear economic model as opposed to a circular model. A linear economy follows a “take, make, waste,” principle: coined by Dr. Taylor Brydges, a research principal and author at the Institute for Sustainable Futures, “take, make, waste” is how we traditionally treat resources in our economy. We take from the earth, create products, and then waste what we no longer need.
The foundations of the linear economy originated from the Industrial Revolution, a time when raw materials and resources were considered to be endlessly abundant. Of course the idea that our raw materials here on earth are limitless is understood, on a societal level, to be a detrimental philosophy to our world community. So why does the majority of society still function under an economic model based on taking, making, and wasting?
One can argue many positive and negative factors that come from the Industrial Revolution, as countries were transformed and citizens lifted out of poverty; yet, despite time passing and technology advancing we still operate in an economic model developed nearly 200 years ago.
Now that resources are recognized as far more finite than originally imagined, a new circular economic system proves more appropriate than an old linear model– a new model that The Urban Canopy upholds at our core.
The Urban Canopy: Who We Are
The Urban Canopy Staff
Founded in 2011, The Urban Canopy is pioneering the local food cycle to create a more sustainable and equitable food system in Chicago. Our unique structure is designed around a circular economic model congruent with what we call the urban food cycle. We have a farm in the Auburn Greshman neighborhood, participate at many farmers markets, offer at-home deliveries of a local unified community sourced agriculture box (LUCSA), process and distribute food before it is composted, and offer a residential and commercial compost hauling and a soil program.
One of the foundational pillars of our structure is circular economics. Also known as circularity, circular economics is a system wherein resource production and consumption involves recycling, reusing, and sharing as much existing materials as possible, minimizing carbon emissions and consumption of materials. It is, as The Ellen MacArthur Foundation describes it “an industrial economy that is restorative or regenerative by value and design.” So, when faced with a powerful economic model that is contrary to the most sustainable use of our resources, how do we incorporate something like a circular economy into our own lives?
One way is to focus on how we use food and what the cycle of food looks like, especially in an urban setting like Chicago. The Urban Canopy takes pride in the work we do by collecting organic waste materials throughout the city and surrounding suburbs, transferring that material to be processed and then returning that processed material to our members and partners. While composting is a small but critical component of the Food Recovery Hierarchy. The Food Recovery Hierarchy is an inverted pyramid that demonstrates the most useful food-related actions for creating benefits not only to the environment, but the economy, as well as maximizing the use of food calories and nutrients.
What The Food Recovery Hierarchy Is And How It Works
Photo Credit: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
At the top, is “source reduction,” or reducing food waste right at the source. One can prevent food waste by creating a grocery list, inventorying supplies, using portion control, and buying less. Thinking of your kitchen this way can not only create less waste but help you save on your grocery bill.
The second level, “feeding hungry people,” is recovering the nutritional value of food for people in need. Rather than throwing away excess food or even making food for people in need (which is a noble act but does not solve food waste) the principle is to take extra food that was made for one purpose and give it to those in need.
Third on the hierarchy is “feeding animals”. Using what might not be extra food for people to create animal feed is another great way to repurpose food waste. For example, instead of throwing away halloween Jack-o-lanterns, the Urban Canopy collects these and feeds them to pigs! Chickens and pigs are always thankful for some table scraps, but this can be accomplished at a larger scale, too. Food generated in commercial food facilities that is not fit for human consumption can be transitioned to food for animal consumption.
Further down the pyramid is “industrial uses.” One example of this is rendering animal by-products into fats and proteins that are used in the manufacturing of products like animal feed, fertilizers, paint and cosmetics as well. These rendered products can be taken into the energy sector, as well, to convert materials like kitchen grease into renewable natural gas or RNG. Check out the folks at the Green Era campus in Chicago to see more of this in action.
Finally, we have arrived at “composting.” Composting is the process by which compostable matter is broken down aerobically or anaerobically into a usable nutrient rich soil amendment. If you are unable to tackle any other steps of the Food Recovery Hierarchy, composting is the final line of defense against food waste, allowing biomatter to return to the earth and sustain other forms of life by nature’s intended process.
Below composting is the dreaded “landfill.” Avoiding putting food waste in a landfill is crucial. One should note how one of these practices quickly drops to avoid at all costs on the lowest level of the Food Recovery Hierarchy. The Illinois EPAs estimates that Illinois landfills have a cumulative life expectancy of approximately 19 years. This is one major reason to participate in a circular economy.
Ways You Can Participate In The Circular Economy
A circular economy dictates that all waste becomes a resource for some other means. To replicate a circular economy at home:
Try keeping your single use plastic use to a minimum.
Ask yourself if you or a friend might be able to repair something instead of throwing it away.
Break away from linear thinking and spend a little more on a higher quality appliance that can last longer, or not upgrading your phone to each newest model.
Try donating old clothing to charity and just generally making less purchases overall. Ask yourself: do you really need that item? Maybe keep it in your cart for a few days before actually purchasing just to make sure you truly need it.
If you have the space and time, try gardening!
Whenever possible, use public transportation and adjust your thermostat up in the summer and down in the winter.
Lastly consider a “climatarian diet” that aims to reduce consumption of high carbon footprint food such as red meat.
Of course supporting businesses locally and globally that follow a circular economic model is another way to break free from linear consumption. To reverse the effects of climate change, there will need to be major industry and government overhauls examining their participation in global economies. But that doesn’t mean that the individual does not matter.
The more people who practice the principles of a circular economy, the better. Ideally someone can become a member of Urban Canopy, receive food grown on our farm from our LUCSA box or from farmers markets we attend, put whatever food waste they create in our compost bucket that is then returned as a finished compost soil to not only our farm, but back to our members' gardens and house plants thus beginning the cycle again.
To find out more about the Urban Canopy’s composting services and CSA options, please visit our website.
ARTICLE WRITTEN BY
Andrew Meland, Compost Club Co-Lead, The Urban Canopy
