A letter from Cedar Grove General Manager, Nick Harbert (September 2009)

Glass is becoming a significant problem in our finished product. It comes in primarily with commercial food waste and to a much lesser extent from residential food waste. Glass bottles break and it is extremely difficult to get it out of the compost. By the time glass bottles get to the plants, they are usually broken into small pieces and almost impossible to detect, much less sort out. The number of complaints regarding glass is overtaking plastic as our worst issue. People may tolerate plastic but they will not put up with glass.
 
I am proposing that we initiate a campaign with all of our customers as well as cities and counties to keep glass out of their organics bins. Plastic has been challenging for sometime but we are working on measures with some success that will continue to get more out of our system. Plastic needs to continue to be an area of focus but glass needs to be elevated to a zero tolerance policy.   
 
Please communicate with everyone in your area of responsibility to turn up the pressure to get glass out of our incoming feedstocks. We will be looking diligently for glass in the loads coming in with the intent of rejecting loads or upcharging whenever we find it.
 
Your support to get glass to the MRFs [materials reclamation facilities] and not to us is very much appreciated.

A letter from Cedar Grove

Dear Valued Customer:

We have seen an influx of Trellis Earth products in our contamination piles. These piles are made up of items that did not compost and are left over after our composting process. These unapproved items cause us excessive expense to segregate and dispose of as well as contaminate our sale product. We are contacting you to remind everyone that the only food service products allowed to go into commercial food waste carts are those that have been accepted by Cedar Grove Composting.

Please go to this link to view commercially accepted items:
http://cedar-grove.com/SPU.asp

Trellis Earth products are not listed on our site, and are not accepted at Cedar Grove® facilities.

Always feel free to ask to view a product’s Letter of Acceptance from Cedar Grove® if you are purchasing compostable food service ware.

These pictures are just one of the many products that Trellis Earth sells.

Before:
After:
Any products with this logo must not be placed into your Compostable Bin.

Thank You for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,
Cedar Grove Composting

If you have any questions about this matter please contact us via e-mail at: infogogreen@cedar-grove.com