United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Solid Waste and
Emergency Response
(5306W)
EPA-530-F-98-023b
September 1998
www.epa.gov/osw
Fletcher Allen
Health Care
Burlington, Vermont
90% Recovery of Preconsumer Food Discards
The Medical Center Hospital of Vermont (MCHV) Campus of Fletcher
Allen Health Care delivers approximately 90% of its food preparation
scraps and steam table leftovers to an off-site composting facility. The hospital also
donates produce to a food bank and sends old grease to a rendering facility. Its food discard
recovery program allows Fletcher Allen to save approximately $ 1,400 per year in landfill
hauling and tipping fees and to support a local farm.
Program Description
K
itchen staff at the MCHV Campus of
Fletcher Allen Health Care prepare 4,000
meals a day for patients and cafeteria patrons
at the 500-bed facility. Kitchen staff place
food preparation discards and leftovers from
cafeteria steam tables into 64-gallon toters
every Monday through Friday. Leftovers
from plates are not collected because
separating out post-consumer compostables
from individual patient rooms is difficult,
and because staff need to be extra careful
about keeping sanitary conditions in this
hospital setting.
Hospital housekeeping staff bring
full toters to an organic farm run by the
Intervale Foundation where discards are
windrow composted. Intervale is a
non-profit organization that runs many
programs including the Intervale
Composting Project, a partnership
between Intervale and the Chittenden
(VT) Solid Waste District, with
Intervale the managing partner. The
project accepts food scraps from
hundreds of large and small
businesses in addition to horse
manure from a farm, leaves, and
yard trimmings. Because the
project is located near residential
communities, Intervale staff only
turn windrows when the wind is blowing away
from more populated areas. The material takes
about 10 months to compost. It is then
screened to remove large pieces and used on
Intervale farms. It is also sold to area businesses
and gardeners and through mail order.
During the year it took Intervale to
receive a permit to accept commercial
discards, hospital staff were trained in
separation of compostable items as well as in
proper storage and handling procedures.
Staff were already separating out recyclables
to send to the hospital's recycling facility
located in a nearby town. Separating food
discards was not a major change in their daily
routine. All new staff a re trained in separating
Contacts:
Environmental Health
Coordinator
Office of Community Health Improvement
Fletcher Allen Health Care
Community Health Improvement
UHC Campus, Arnold 4410
Burlington,VT 05401
(802) 656-2399 fax: (802) 656-5985
email: hshaner@aol.com
Waste Team Leader
Fletcher Allen Health Care
111 Colchester Avenue
Burlington,VT 05401
(802) 656-4886 fax: (802) 656-2790
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recyclables, including compostables.
The hospital housekeeping staff's
waste team makes daily trips to the
recycling facility in a 19-foot box truck;
trips to the Intervale farm, about 1 mile
off the route, were added when
Fletcher Allen began composting. The
truck is standard dock height, making it
easy for staff to wheel heavy
toters on and off. After
emptying toters, the waste
team disinfects them at the
recycling facility with a hospital
grade disinfectant. Fletcher Allen
has had no odor or vector
problems. The hospital's Waste
Specialist attributes this to "keeping
our compost moving," and to cleaning
the toters daily.
Kitchen staff collect grease in
containers, which are emptied into a
180-gallon tank. Baker Commodities, a
rendering company, picks up the tank
at no cost to Fletcher Allen, and sends
it to one of its facilities for processing.
The hospital donates fruit and
vegetables to a local food bank.
Costs/Benefits
Start-up costs were minimal. In 1997,
Fletcher Allen paid per-ton tip fees
of $25 at the compost facility plus
approximately $57 per ton in labor,
transportation, and other related costs.
Trash hauling and landfill tipping cost
the hospital $98 per ton.
Fletcher Allen buys $1,000 of
produce wholesale per month from the
farm, allowing patients to eat locally
grown, pesticide-free produce. Once a
week, employees can buy organically
grown produce from a farm cart
brought to the hospital.
The program provides good
public relations in the community and
fits in with the hospital's waste
reduction policy. As one of 6,000
hospitals in the United States, which in
total produce one to two percent of
the country's solid waste, Fletcher
Allen Health Care staff believe
composting to be part of the
hospital's mission to provide for the
health of the community.
Tips for Replication
• Know what's going on at your
facility before you begin any program.
Calculate your baseline operation in
tons and costs. If you don't measure
your success, the program will be
invisible.
• Look for existing infrastructure or
processes within the system on which
to piggyback your program. This will
make program costs small add-ons
rather than whole new costs.
• Train food service workers well,
and well ahead of program
implementation.
• Place signs on containers.
• Assign program responsibility to
somebody. To ensure program success,
one person needs to oversee it.
Program Summary, 1997
Sector Hospital
Average number of meals prepared 4,000 meals per day
Start date
Dedicated employees*
Methods
Materials collected
Part of comprehensive waste
reduction program?
Total waste generated (TPY)
Food discards generated (TPY)
RESULTS:
Food discards recovered (TPY)
Food discards recovered (%)
Total waste recovered (TPY)
Total waste recovered (%)
1993
0.5
Off-site windrow composting; rendering;
donations
Kitchen scraps; cooking oil; preconsumer
leftovers
Yes
1,431 tons (estimated)
100 tons (estimated)
90 tons
90% (estimated)
468 tons
33% (estimated)
COSTS:
Average com post costs $ 82 pe r to n
Average avoided landfill hauling $98 per ton
and tipping fees
Net savings $16 per ton
* A dedicated employee is one whose primary responsibility is working with the food discard program.
TPY = tons per year
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