♻️This Thanksgiving – Diverting Food Waste from Landfills

FEATURED CONTENT:
With new legislation, is a zero food waste future possible for Miami-Dade? Learn more in this week’s newsletter, which takes a look back at our video feature with Fertile Earth Worm Farm that recycles food waste.

As Thanksgiving prep begins — and chopped onions, carrot tops, and pie trimmings pile up on kitchen counters across Miami-Dade — it’s worth asking where all those scraps will end up.

When it comes to diverting food waste, many of us rely on backyard compost bins or small businesses that collect scraps. But until recently, large-scale commercial composting in Miami-Dade County mostly operated in legal gray areas.

That’s now changing.

In October, Miami-Dade County passed legislation that opens the door to large-scale commercial composting. For the first time, composting operations located in agricultural zoning districts can apply for administrative approval and expand without having to navigate the same costly, industrial-level permits that once made growth nearly impossible.

This is a major shift in how Miami-Dade manages waste. The ordinance could divert tens of thousands of tons of organic material from landfills and incinerators each year, facilities that are nearing capacity and contributing heavily to methane emissions.

This change is also transformative for the entrepreneurs and community advocates who have been pushing for a more circular waste economy, such as Compost for Life, Soilmate Composting, and Fertile Earth Worm Farm. All were limited by loopholes that forced them to spread compost across multiple farms or prevented them from selling finished soil. Now they can grow beyond serving commercial clients, like the case with Fertile Earth, which recently won the Miami-Dade Solid Waste Public Innovation Challenge, receiving a $100,000 investment to pilot its model with county partners.

We featured Fertile Earth two years ago in this Opportunity Miami Video. Founder Dr. Lanett Sobel explained how they were “recycling food” by making a new product out of something that was considered waste, “the way nature intended.”

The other two companies awarded in the public innovation challenge were Clean Earth Innovations, which transforms organic waste into nutrient-rich biochar, and Scrappzero, a scan-and-go app solution to guide residents on what belongs in the recycling bin.

A Zero Food Waste Future?

Part of Miami-Dade County’s larger strategy is to cut waste and move toward zero waste by “repurposing for a more sustainable and greener community.”

But is a zero food waste future possible for us here?

“We’re behind the times,” Dr. Sobel said of composting in Miami-Dade County when we met her in October 2023. “There are so many people that are so much ahead of us that we can learn from and we can jump forward.” (Across Europe, many cities are already separating food waste for composting and more.)

The Path Forward for Miami-Dade

The work extends beyond compost piles.

Through the Everglades Earth Cycle, Fertile Earth is integrating composting into public schools, introducing thousands of students to climate-smart practices. They’re also bringing this work to municipalities and the Miccosukee Tribe, where compost is already feeding a thriving community garden. Community workshops, farm tours, and weekly compost clubs keep residents engaged and connected to the process.

This progress reflects a broader vision: the path forward isn’t just about disposing of waste more efficiently, but about rethinking waste entirely. That means treating food scraps as a resource, generating local economic value, and building a more resilient Miami-Dade where soil, community, and climate health go hand in hand.

A new era for composting has begun in Miami-Dade. Let it be a model for what’s possible.

As we close out Thanksgiving, let’s skip tossing all those food scraps and turn them into something better: new life for our soil.

PITCH US

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~ Opportunity Miami