WNC Food Waste - WNC Food Waste Solutions

Going, going, gone — but not wasted!

Small, local grocer West Village Market is big on eliminating food waste

Entering the West Village Market, a small grocery store in West Asheville, one is immediately struck with how clean, beautiful, and efficiently organized it is. Everything looks tidy and immaculate. And most notably, this market puts hardly anything into the trash.

How do they do it? Rosanne Kiely, who co-owns West Village Market with Ron Ainspan, gives us the scoop:

Freezing

Almost every food product can have its life extended by freezing. Both farmers and the grocery store use this method to protect locally sourced meat from spoilage. Many meat products arrive at West Village Market already frozen and then are stored in the freezer or sent directly to a display case depending on consumer demand.

Some meat comes in fresh and goes directly to the retail shelf. Meat products that are still fresh in the display case but not yet sold can have their shelf lives extended by freezing. Some fresh goods, such as bananas, that change texture or quality when frozen can be used for new purposes like smoothies or baked goods after freezing. This is a great way to keep inventory fresh and safe!

Repurposing and reusing

When West Village Market has an oversupply of a perishable product, staff members refer to a list of recipes they keep to find ways to turn it into a delicious dish and include it in the daily deli offerings before it spoils.

Non-perishable products that are nearing the end of their shelf lives are discounted for quick sale to get them into the hands — and bellies — of consumers faster. And the market recognizes that not all consumers need or want jumbo/family sizes of certain packaged products, such as cheese, and provide smaller-size purchased options to ensure less waste at home as well.

Donating

The market donates some items to Black Mountain-based nonprofit Bounty and Soul, which distributes fresh fruits, vegetables, and other usable foods to the community through its programming.

Supporting employees

A perk of working at the West Village Market is that employees are encouraged to take home surplus foods that are reaching the end of their shelf lives. This is both a bonus for employees and avoids the cost of transporting the food to other locations for distribution.

Feeding livestock

Some edible products that are past their prime go to a local farmer who sends them along in the food chain by feeding them to livestock such as pigs and chickens.

Composting

Local waste-hauling and composting business Danny’s Dumpster collects compost on site at West Asheville Market. Some food scraps are fed to black soldier flies, which produce rich “frass,” or droppings that can be used as fertilizer and are themselves eventually used as food for chickens and fish.

TerraCycle

The West Village Market collects the hard-to-recycle food containers, like potato chip bags, squeeze pouches, and bar wrappers, that we often simply throw away and packages them to be sent quarterly to TerraCycle, a business that recycles them into new products.

Article by Marc Rudow

When Asheville-born brewery Wicked Weed was purchased by Anheuser-Busch InBev back in 2017, many craft beer fans didn’t know what to expect. Would the flavor and soul of Wicked Weed’s craft be lost? Five years on, we can happily say the flavor and soul are safe. And although they’ve scaled up production, sales, and distribution, they’ve also scaled up sustainability efforts. Through employee engagement and both community and internal initiatives, Wicked Weed is setting a high bar: from increasing energy and water efficiency to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. They are paying attention to their environmental impact and encouraging staff and patrons to do the same.

Zero waste station made from repurposed wood barrel staves

We could wax poetic about all of Wicked Weed’s energy and plastic reduction efforts but we’re here to talk about food waste. The brewer currently has a 98.5% waste diversion rate (i.e., amount of waste diverted from the landfill to reuse, recycle, and compost). In addition to making food donations, they began a composting program at all facilities for items such as food waste, paper towels, and compostable plates, cups, and utensils and improved their waste diversion rate, to divert about 16% more materials from the landfill.

There are currently robust food waste composting programs at the Brewpub on Biltmore Ave and at the Funkatorium on Coxe Ave while a new compost program at their production facilities not only targets food waste from break rooms but all organic wastes (e.g. fruit, grapes, coffee, etc.) from the brewing process itself. Last year, Wicked Weed sent over 7,000,000 lbs of spent grain to farmers for animal feed (up from 5,000,000 lbs in 2020) and saved over 30,000 lbs of compostable materials from being landfilled. In the future, they hope to get Zero Waste Certified and send all spent yeast and fermenter waste to local farms for feedstock.

Andrew Dagnan, Wicked Weed’s Director of Safety and Sustainability

Food Waste Solutions WNC is proud to have Wicked Weed as a 2022 Food Waste Reduction Month partner. Many thanks to this Food Waste Hero for keeping the flavor and the soul and proving that brewing great beer doesn’t have to come at the expense of our natural resources.

food waste hero Wicked Weed Brewing WNC Food Waste

Food Waste Hero: West Village Market