Resources for Participating Businesses The Bigger Picture More Local Initiatives
Cut Your Waste & Achieve Your Sustainability Goals
Food and floral scraps collection service is offered in the Petoskey and Harbor Springs areas. While restaurants are the majority of our customers,
- florists
- grocery stores and
- senior living communities
also use the service.
Cost
- $8 per cart per pick up
- the number of carts collected can be adjusted to meet in-season demand while saving you money in the off season
- participation fee of $50 charged annually
Collections Days
- Tuesdays year round
- optional additional Friday collection available June through October
Bucket & Cart Liners
We stock and deliver BPI-certified compostable liners for your collection buckets and curbside carts.
They help keep your buckets and carts clean year-round; the liners are required to prevent materials freezing to the curbside carts in winter.
- For 5-gallon buckets, case of 500 $30.22
- For 64-gallon carts, case of 60 $46.77
The price of liners that you order will simply be added to your next quarterly service bill.
Learn more
Call 231-348-0640 or email recycle@emmetcounty.org to discuss a customized food scraps collection program for your establishment!
Program Overview PDF
Participating Establishments
- The Back Lot
- Beard’s Brewery
- City Park Grill
- Emmet County's Pleasantview Road Drop-off Center
- Emmet County Building
- The Friendship Center & Council on Aging
- Gurney’s Bottle Shop
- The Grain Train
- Harbor Springs Farmer’s Market
- Harbor Springs IGA
- Harbor Watch Condos
- Iron Horse Cafe at North Central Michigan College
- Julienne Tomatoes
- LIttle Traverse Bay Band of Odawa NSN Governmental Center & Natural Resources Dept.
- LIttle Traverse Bay Band of Odawa NSN Food Distribution Warehouse
- Manna Food Project
- McLaren NM
- Monarch Garden and Floral Design
- The New York Restaurant
- Odawa Casino
- Palette Bistro
- Parkside Deli
- Petoskey Children’s Nature Preschool
- Petoskey Farmer’s Market
- Petoskey High School
- Petoskey Middle School
- Pontius Flower Shop
- Pour
- Roast and Toast
- Stafford’s Bay View Inn
- Stafford’s Perry Hotel
- Stafford’s Pier
- Tap 30
- The Back Lot
- Tom’s Mom’s Cookies
- Yoga Roots
Resources for Participating Businesses
Be in Touch!
We are eager to hear from participating restaurants and florists about your experience separating your food scraps for composting! Whether compliments, observations, concerns or criticisms, please contact us anytime at:
Recycle@EmmetCounty.org or 231-348-0640.
Need more signs, labels, handouts, etc?
Here are full-color PDFs:
Compostable Liners
We recommend using compostable liners year round to help keep your food scraps collection containers clean, however cart liners are only required in winter. We do rinse your cart(s) each time we collect in the spring, summer and fall. Only BPI-certified plastic bags are acceptable; other plastics don't break down properly during composting.
To obtain liners call us at 231-348-0640 or email recycle@emmetcounty.org.
The Bigger Picture
A couple of quick statistics suggest why wasted food is gaining the spotlight nationally:
21%
Food scraps make up 21% of the material landfilled in the United States. In fact food is the largest component of discards by weight.
30-40%
30-40% of the food grown in the United States is wasted. Only a tiny portion of this is the inevitable inedible trimmings–bones, citrus peels, lettuce stubs and the like. Good food is lost every step of the way: on the farm, in transport, in processing, at retail, in restaurants, and at home.
Solutions
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, there are five methods of addressing food in danger of being landfilled, as shown in the pyramid above.
Local businesses, organizations and families are implementing them all!
Source Reduction
Our commercial food scraps collection customers report that keeping food scraps separate from their garbage has made food waste patterns visible. They have been able to save money by reducing their purchases of foods seen frequently in the scrap bins!
Feed Hungry People
Local restaurants and caterers have pre-arranged to deliver surplus prepared food from events to the Nehemiah Project.
Surplus packaged food can often be distributed to families in need by the Manna Food Project.
Feed Farm Animals
Many local restaurants save food scraps for pigs being raised for personal consumption by employees or neighbors. (Note: pigs to be sold cannot be fed meat scraps.)
Pigs 'n Peaches
In one fun instance, American Spoon Foods had a large quantity of frozen peaches which were not up to their standards. They partnered with Serendipity Farm in Wolverine where the pigs ate the peaches with gusto!
Industrial Uses
Recovery of fryer oil by companies like Evergreen Grease Service is an example of capturing food waste for industrial use. Biodiesel for vehicles is among the many products that can be made from the used cooking oil.
