Food Scraps Go to the Animals
Barthold Recycling and Roll-off Services
Don't throw away your food waste! Barthold Recy-
cling and Roll-Off Services picks up food scraps
from commercial businesses and feeds the scraps
to pigs and cattle.
How It Works
Since 1988, Barthold Recycling & Roll-off Services has collected food
from restaurants, hotels, schools, nursing homes, grocery stores and
even large food processors to feed 3,800 pigs and 250 head of cattle
on its 290-acre facility. Today, Barthold collects food scraps from
about 400 commercial customers in the St. Francis, Minnesota area
each month.
In 1951, the Federal government and the State of Minnesota Depart-
ment of Animal Health required haulers and farmers to process
or cook food before feeding it to animals to kill harmful bacteria.
In order to comply, Barthold pioneered a method of cooking the
food scraps in the trucks after collection. Steam pipes are hooked
to the truck for 20 minutes, increasing the temperature enough to
kill potentially harmful bacteria. Once cooked, the food waste is fed
to the pigs and cows. Barthold operates a full circle practice by also
composting the manure from the animals for fertilizer used both
onsite and offsite.
Ramsey and Washington Counties,
Minnesota, established a County
Environmental Charge to encour-
age commercial waste generators to
reduce their organic waste, avoiding
additional charges on their waste
bill. For example, two innovative
customers, the Prairie School District
andJ&J Distributing (wholesale produce distributor) used Barthold
Recycling & Roll-off Services and estimate that they save 50 % and
67 %, respectively, in trash hauling and disposal fees. J &J Distribut-
ing estimates that by using Barthold they divert an average of 35
tons of fruit and vegetable waste or 65% of its total waste stream per
month. Customers report other benefits such as increased cleanli-
ness and reduced labor costs. Also, since Barthold uses the compost
produced from its animal waste both onsite and offsite, they reduce
costs and create another source of revenue.
As you can see, feeding animals provides an excellent oppor-
tunity economically and environmentally for your business. If
you generate large quantities of food scraps, look at your waste
handling and consider the benefits of recycling that waste!
What Makes Barthold Recycling and Roll-
off Successful
One word sums it up: collection. Barthold Farms
established industry food collection service stan-
dards to ensure consistency and good performance
and ensures that all farms isted on their Web site
adhere to these standards. For example, Barthold
uses special containers with lids that seal with a rub-
ber gasket to reduce odor and leakage. In addition,
thanks to Barthold's long relationship with many of
its customers, along with education and training, its
final product is 99.75% pure. Experienced customers
know how to properly sort the food waste so that
contamination is minimal, and Barthold trains new
customers to do the same.
Everyone Benefits
Customers save money by paying Barthold to haul
their food waste and feed it to pigs and cattle
because it reduces taxes, disposal costs, and fees
at landfills. Customers pay 30% less to recycle their
food waste instead of throwing it away. In April 2003,
www.epa.gov/organicmaterials/fd-study.htm
Type of Recovery:
Feed Animals
Company: Barthold Recycling & Roll-off Services
Family owned business in the St. Francis, MN area.
Website: www.foodrecyclers.com
Cool Facts:
°§^) Barthold feeds 3,800 pigs and
250 cattle on its 290-acre facility.
•w
j They process around
1,000 tons of food
scraps per month.
October 2006
EPA530-F-06-035
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