About - Scraps Compost

The Start of Scraps

Nicholas Eller was born and raised in Winston Salem. From a young age, he had a fascination with all things “waste.” While in college at UNCW, his studies focused heavily on the garbage industry, and after graduation he spent three years working in the private hauling industry. Through these experiences, one thing became clear- he was tired of participating in a system defined by a lack of environmental integrity and wasteful disposal of valuable resources. Nicholas moved back to Winston Salem with a dream to transform his local community. Thus, Scraps was born! The motto for Scraps is “Environmentally Focused, Practically Driven.” Nicholas wants to see to it that every individual is equipped with education and resources that make environmental change attainable for this community.

Why Compost?

Did you know according to the Environmental Protection Agency on average 35% of the household waste stream is food waste? To better put this into perspective here’s some “food” for thought:

⁃The United States discards more food than any other country in the world: nearly 120 billion pounds — every year. That’s estimated to be almost 40 percent of the entire US food supply, and equates to 325 pounds of waste per person.

⁃That’s like every person in America throwing 975 average sized apples right into the garbage or rather right into landfills, as most discarded food ends up there. In fact, food is the single largest component taking up space inside US landfills, making up 22 percent of municipal solid waste.

⁃All told, the amount of food wasted in America has an approximate value of nearly $218 billion – the equivalent of 130 billion meals.

So can composting really help? And can I really make a difference? Absolutely! By diverting food waste from individual homes and businesses, we can drastically reduce the amount of food that gets needlessly tossed in the landfill to rot away with other garbage. Instead, these food scraps can be mixed with other natural material (wood shavings, dead leaves, etc). Then we let nature take it from there- decomposing to turn these scraps into nutrient dense soil that can replenish gardens and farms. Imagine the impact a small group of individuals can have by giving back to the ground what it has given to us.

Major Benefits of composting:

•Organic waste in landfills generates, methane, a potent greenhouse gas. By composting wasted food and other organics, methane emissions are significantly reduced.

•Compost reduces and in some cases eliminates the need for chemical fertilizers.

•Compost promotes higher yields of agricultural crops.

•Compost can help aid reforestation, wetlands restoration, and habitat revitalization efforts by improving contaminated, compacted, and marginal soils.

•Compost enhances water retention in soils.

•Compost provides carbon sequestration.

So be a part of the change and never wonder where your waste goes again!