By: Michelle Nguyen
It all started with a waffle. Daniel Blake was eating one at a buffet when a thought occurred to him. What would happen to all the leftover food from the buffet? Blake went home and did a little research. On average, Americans throw away 40% of their food a year, which is around 90 billion pounds, valued at $165 million a year. About 25.9 million tons of food waste end up in landfills, rotting away and releasing dangerous methane into the air. Methane is a greenhouse gas that traps heat 23 times more than CO2, which leads to global warming. Once Blake realized the full extent of damage that wasted food had on the environment, he co-founded EcoScraps with Craig Martineau. Through its organic fertilizer and plant food products, EcoScraps provides a solution to deal with food waste while returning rich nutrients to the soil.
Both business students from Brigham Young University (BYU) at the startup of EcoScraps, Blake and Martineau started off small, composting at an abandoned building without permission but which they would eventually convince the owners to allow them to use as their facility. They dumpster dived for food and transported it via their cars and U-Haul trucks. One time Blake filled a garbage can full of rotted banana peels and placed it in his Prius. Driving up a hill, the can tipped and spilled 11 gallons of rotted banana juice in his car. Today, EcoScraps works with businesses to collect their wasted food instead of dumpster diving. After the wasted food is collected, it is mixed with cellulose to create the right mix of Carbon and Nitrogen. Under proper conditions (“frequent turning and mixing”), the cellulose turns the raw materials into a high performing compost rich in Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium which allows plants to thrive and grow to their fullest potential.
EcoScraps so far has recycled 15.2 million pounds of food waste, reduced 9.16 million pounds of methane from being released into the air and collected scraps from 96 produce outlets. EcoScraps is working with retailers such as Target and Costco to collect food waste, compost it and resell it back to the retailer. “A closed-loop system like this is an ideal solution in such a wasteful society and shows that corporations are even willing to pay for their own garbage,” says Drew Nitschke of Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment.
Ecoscraps has won honors for ‘Green’ Innovation and Products from Utah Business as well as receiving a $250,000 grant from Chase. “I think EcoScraps proves that young people can start businesses and that they can work with Home Depot and Costco and Associated Foods,” said Martineau. For more information, please visit www.ecoscraps.com
Michelle Nguyen is a Junior at Memorial High School. She speaks English and Vietnamese fluently and is currently learning Spanish and French. Michelle is part of the International Club and Explore’s Program, a program that allows students to learn and experience different international careers at MHS. In the next two years, Michelle hopes to attend college in Texas. She plans on majoring in Business.
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