Walker, a local resident, is part of a growing movement of individuals and organizations working to reduce food waste in Emmet County. The partnership between IPR and Grist is a testament to the growing awareness of food waste as a significant environmental issue. This partnership aims to shed light on the challenges and opportunities associated with reducing food waste in Emmet County.
“Our biggest mission and objective here at Emmet County Recycling is to find opportunities to recover what are very much resources and prevent them from going to landfill,” said Walker, who helps run the program and is co-chair of the Michigan Organics Council. One goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Food waste accounts for an estimated 58% of methane emissions coming from municipal landfills in the United States, according to a 2023 report from the Environmental Protection Agency . Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, and Michigan’s dumps — which also receive trash from other states and Canada — are among the country’s largest emitters .
Emmet County, Michigan, has implemented a comprehensive program to address climate change. This program focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, promoting sustainable practices, and building resilience to climate impacts. The program has been successful in reducing emissions and has garnered national attention.
“We’re going to be working with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) to develop a comprehensive plan for organics management in Michigan. This plan will address the following key areas:
Emmet County, Michigan, is a leader in composting, having pioneered a system that has become a model for other counties across the state. The county’s commitment to composting is rooted in its desire to reduce waste and promote sustainability. Emmet County’s composting program is a multi-faceted approach that encompasses various aspects of waste management. It involves collecting yard waste, food scraps, and other organic materials from residents and businesses.
“This is something that we can all get behind,” Walker said. “You have to just implement it with a vision and policy and get the buy-in for more diversion opportunities.” It can do this because its local ordinance requires that almost all waste runs through the transfer station, including compost, trash and recycling (it excludes construction materials). “Our municipalities and our townships are no longer paying for peoples’ garbage, and that’s the policy that I believe should be implemented statewide, county to county and community to community,” she said. State officials have taken note: In June, Emmet County was featured in a Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy session on local composting, part of a program to help communities decarbonize.
These existing resources can be repurposed and adapted to create new, sustainable solutions. For instance, a local farm might be able to repurpose its existing manure management system to create a nutrient-rich compost. This could involve using the manure to fertilize crops, reducing the need for synthetic fertilizers.
“Emmet County has proven that,” he said. “It might take some blood, sweat, tears and money, but it can be done.” What sets such programs apart, he said, is that it’s invested directly in recycling and composting, learning about waste diversion, getting the right equipment, and treating it as a benefit rather than a financial drain. Hiday said Emmet County’s program is possible partly because it has a small population in a rural area; other places with more people and less space may need to take a different tack, like hiring outside businesses. And Walker said even Emmet’s program has a ways to go: “Though we’re recovering about, oh, I don’t know, 10, 15% of the food waste from what’s going in the municipal solid waste stream, it still is like a drop in the bucket about how much food waste is going to landfill here.”
Emmet is working with nine other counties in northern Michigan to figure out how to expand and improve composting and other efforts across the region; a 2022 report commissioned by the nonprofit SEEDS Ecology and Education Centers showed that the region could divert around 26,000 tons of food and yard waste a year. Locally, Walker said, people ask about curbside pickup for houses, but the county team is still figuring out what’s next; state regulations mean they can’t afford to expand too much. And since there are many different ways to compost, a lot of food scraps can be handled at home.
“We don’t want to be the only composter in Emmet County,” she said. “We want to spread that compost love around so that we are recovering more materials,” she said.