Boulder County Jail Wins Sustainability Award From The EPA

BOULDER, CO -- The Boulder County Jail leveraged an on-site garden and extensive composting to reduce its food waste by almost 60 percent between 2015 and 2017. That was enough to earn the facility a nod as a regional winner in the Mountains/Plains area for the Environmental Protection Agency's 2018 Food Recovery Challenge.

The award is notable, as correctional facilities are particularly difficult places to achieve zero waste, according to the EPA. In its waste reduction efforts, jails face obstacles like security and contraband concerns and a population with high turnover that requires constant re-education in zero waste principles. The EPA website explained that the county's resource conservation division had teamed up with the jail to develop approaches to reduce its waste streams one at a time, and wasted food and food scraps was the most recent focus.

The jail also makes an effort to put food leftovers to use as much as possible while abiding by food safety standards, and is considering an analysis of "meal popularity" to prevent uneaten food. Future plans also include purchasing ugly produce or seconds that couldn't otherwise be sold in supermarkets.

More than 1,000 organizations participated in the challenge in 2017. In total, participants diverted an estimated 648,000 tons of food nationwide from landfills or incinerators.

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