A collaboration between two companies, each with a stalwart ecological conscience, has drastically reduced the amount of trash one produces and changed the way people think.
EcoMovement Consulting & Hauling of Dover has partnered with Redhook Brewing in Portsmouth on a top-to-bottom composting program, which involves picking up Redhook's food scraps once or twice a week and taking it (with similar refuse from more than a dozen other Seacoast eateries) to compost farms in Freemont and Farmington, where it is mixed with carbon sources and made into nutrient rich soil.
EcoMovement plans to have its own composting sites in the future, says founder Rian Bedard, noting that the company already services close to 70 businesses, schools, and other institutions in the Seacoast.
EcoMovement provides tutorials to Redhook staff members that involve teaching them how to separate real waste from items that can actually function as compost or be recycled. Workers then set up toters that, when filled, are picked up and hauled off to the farms. The two companies have been working together for a couple of years and now divert 400 to 600 pounds of refuse per week from landfills to the compost farms.
Redhook's Cataqua Pub Manager Nick Wright says that before partnering with EcoMovement, the pub's waste was 100 percent trash. Since then, 90 percent of what had been trash now goes into composting. It's a very big change, and we're really happy that we're able to make the move towards that, he says.
Redhook now uses corn-based straws and plastic cups that are compostable, a change that was difficult in the very beginning, Wright says. Getting to new cups wasn't too bad either. I'd say for companies in other industries who want to do this, it's not a difficult thing to do and it has a great impact.
A New England staple since 1996, Redhook Brewery has for more than a decade been a craft brewery. But while the brew house might be known for its ales, its growing list of green initiatives and policies are going a long way in setting Redhook even further apart from the competition.
Its other green practices include: reusing water heated during the beer's fermentation in other brewing processes; giving leftover trube, yeast, and spent grains to a Massachusetts cow farm, which is then used as feed; and diverting leftover coffee grounds from one of its Kona brand varieties to help fertilize a community garden located on the premises. The brewery has also switched over all lighting on the premises to high-efficiency CFLs, and emphasizes the use of even the most basic food scraps for stock and other products in its near totally scratch kitchen.
EcoMovement has started working on events such as the Redhook Fest, which took place last Saturday and will produce a total of a couple of bags of trash. It's really amazing what they do, Wright says about EcoMovement. All cups were compostable at the fest.
EcoMovement donates its services for all nonprofit events, training volunteers and working with vendors so that only recyclable and compostable materials are used. Volunteers man stations with signs that collect materials for compost, recycling or the landfill. It's key to educate people at events, showing people that we emphasize this reduction in waste, Bedard says.
Both EcoMovement and Redhook are business partners of the Green Alliance, a union of environmentally conscious businesses and individuals throughout the community. Partnering with more than 100 local sustainable businesses, the GA offers members discounted green products and services from its business partners and aims to increase the profits of those local green businesses.
How successful has EcoMovement's partnership been with Redhook? It's been great, Bedard says. We're really ramping it up. It's getting better and better. It's a great example of collaboration for the greater good.
For more information about EcoMovement, visit www.zerowastenow.com, for more information about Redhook, visit www.redhook.com, and for information about the Green Alliance, visit www.greenalliance.biz.
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