Business View Magazine September 2018

84 85 ORLANDO, FLORIDA expressed interest in partnering with Orlando to be the pilot for creating a regional sustainable waste management community– a model that other cities can replicate to achieve zero-waste goals. Over the last two decades, the U.S. has been flatlined at a 34 percent diversion rate. So, the idea behind Beyond 34 is to provide a scal- able model for improving recycling and recovery rates within cities. “Food waste is one of the biggest challenges facing humanity; about $169 billion worth of food, enough to feed the entire homeless popula- tion in America, goes to landfills each year. Being the hospitality hub of the country, with hotels, theme parks, and entertainment, we realized we have to address the enormous amount of food waste in our city. Two of the cool things we’ve rolled out are a commercial food waste collection program, and a backyard composting program. “Now, every resident in Orlando has access to a free, 80-gallon composter that we assemble and deliver to their door. The program saves money for the community by diverting food waste into the composter.We pay to dispose of waste in the landfill, so the less we tip, the more we save. Or- lando now has over 6,500 households that have adopted, and are actively using, a composter to divert food scraps and organic materials, such as leaves and grass clippings. “The commercial food waste collection program targets restaurants, hotels, and the hospitality, entertainment, and food service industries. For example, a restaurant can sign up and we provide carts on wheels for organics and food waste.We pick up the filled carts and take them to a bio-gas facility, where the waste is processed in an anaer- obic digester into bio-gas, which, in turn, becomes electricity that gets pumped into the grid. The city partners with the Reedy Creek Improvement District, and Harvest Power that owns and oper- ates the facility. It’s a sustainable way to handle food waste collection–not only making energy, but the bio-product that comes out of it is also a commercialized fertilizer.We’re excited that our Amway Center, where the Orlando Magic play, has started the food waste collection program at the arena. They are also doing it at Camping World Stadium, and the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center. “There are more than five million different types of recycling labels in America alone, and people are confused about what should and shouldn’t be recycled. So, we’re working with Recycle Across America (RAA), a non-profit that’s helping to create standardized labels for food waste and recycling. Our airport and Orange County Public School system was the first airport and school district to adopt the standardized labels.We have them throughout the downtown, and now we’re putting them throughout our ven-