Table scraps fuel growth

Boston company's organic fertilizer is made from food

Public school officials in Gonzales, Calif., hope food waste from school cafeterias will end up on the athletic fields, starting next year.

The 2,200-student school system is working with Converted Organics Inc., a five-year-old Boston company, to have leftover and discarded food hauled away and converted into fertilizer at the company's facility in nearby Salinas. The fertilizer will be used on playing fields, in town parks, and in the rural school district's bustling agricultural and science programs.

"The exciting part is being able to use the program in our science classes," Superintendent Liz Modena said. "One of the things we had to consider is if we have all this fertilizer, we need somewhere to put it."

Converted Organics' fertilizers are already used on golf courses and by landscapers and turf maintenance companies. The company plans to next year release a pellet version of its product for residential use, with all of the material used in production coming from food waste that has gone through a high-tech composting process.

"There will always be food waste for us to use," said chief executive Edward J. Gildea.

The company is scheduled to open a plant in New Jersey in 2009 that will be able to process 250 tons of food waste daily. Gildea said the waste generated in the New York City area could keep 24 similar plants operating.

A 2004 University of Arizona study estimated 40 to 50 percent of food produced in the United States goes uneaten. Most of that ends up in landfills.

The process of converting food into fertilizer involves a technology called enhanced autogenous thermophilic aerobic digestion, a version of which has been used for decades to treat wastewater. But in Converted Organics' process, the breakdown is stopped before completion to leave a byproduct that turns out to be an effective fertilizer.

Cape Cod Country Club in Falmouth started using Converted Organics fertilizers in August. Superintendent Mark McEachern said they work better than traditional fertilizers. Since switching to the organic treatment, he said, the course has been able to cut fungicide application in half.

Converted Organics' business model allows it to generate revenue not only from selling fertilizer, but from the fees collected from garbage haulers who would otherwise take food waste to landfills and other disposal facilities. Currently, most of the waste comes from large commercial food producers and food-service facilities.

One drawback is that Converted Organics, which sold stock to the public for the first time last year, has to build plants close to waste sources, and local regulations can be complicated. For instance, the permitting process in New Jersey took three years. Things are moving faster in Rhode Island, where the company hopes to break ground next year for a plant. Each facility costs $15 million to $18 million, the company said.

"We have high hopes," Gildea said. "There isn't anybody dominating the organic fertilizer field right now."