Business Going Green:
Growing businesses on 'leftovers'

During the recent holidays, many cooks wondered what to do with large quantities of leftovers. Now just imagine the ongoing volumes of leftovers generated by large, industrial food producers. A number of Missouri entrepreneurs are looking at food waste as an opportunity, and here are three examples.

Grisham Farm Products, Inc., founded in 1994 near Mountain Grove, may have been the first large-scale food waste processing plant in the state. The family corporation produces a high-quality feed that is sold to the poultry and swine industries.

"We'll take pet food, pasta, cereal, nuts, and anything made out of grain, including salvage grains, from a 500-mile radius," says Mike Hendershot, manager of feed formulations, sales and procurement. "We can always use more product!"

Started by Lexie Grisham as a way to supplement feed for his own livestock, the company now employs up to 85 workers, processes about 80,000 to 85,000 tons of food waste per year and serves most of the Midwest.

Grisham Farms also has taken several steps to green its operations, explained Hendershot: "For all that we process through here, less than 2,600 tons goes to the landfill each year from our facility. We recycle all our paper, plastic, wood pallets, everything we can."

The plant uses green sawdust and a biomass heater for its processing, burning 200 pounds of sawdust per week. Grisham Farms recently replaced two old hammer mills with one impact mill. It cuts energy costs and produces the same amount of feed in 12 hours that used to take 20 hours.

Thomason Brothers Inc., in Mansfield, is a relatively new business that specializes in what Grisham Farm Products does not use. Not all food wastes are dry solids. Liquids and wet wastes require a different type of processing. Thomason Brothers purchased a large centrifuge that separates wet wastes into three phases: solids, light liquids and heavy liquids.

Currently the company is setting up its new 15,000-square-foot plant and working the kinks out of its process. At capacity, the centrifuge will be able to process 48,000 gallons of food waste per day.

Company president, Ben Thomason chuckles, "Right now we have a 2,000-gallon tank of off-spec Italian dressing we are working with." He says the key to getting the maximum separation is to bring the waste to the right temperature before spinning. Each waste stream is slightly different so the process requires some finesse.

Solids and liquids from this batch will be used to produce a high-quality chicken feed, but Thomason has larger plans for the volumes of waste mayonnaise and salad oils generated in the region. The plant will be set up to produce biodiesel when fuel prices are high, and animal feed when biodiesel prices are low.

"We are permitted and technically able to go both ways," says Thomason. For the future, Thomason Brothers is also looking to produce biodiesel from other materials, such as the large quantities of available commercial food deep-frying oil, and from oil skimmed from wastewater treatment processes.

The company just received up to $91,800 in state tax credits through the Enhanced Enterprise Zone program. The credits will be issued over five years in exchange for $1.5 million in new investment and the creation of 28 new jobs.

Black Oak Organics in Verona is a smaller business that found its niche managing wastes from cafeterias, construction companies, and other sources. For 30 years, owner Craig Post worked as a solid-waste hauler and for a company that developed landfills. He understands firsthand that decomposition of food, wood, plant matter and other organic wastes creates methane and leachate - two environmental problems that plague landfills.

He knew he could convert these materials into a usable compost product that could be sold to landscapers and nurseries.

In 2004, he and Alan Chappell, who started the city of Springfield's composting operation, obtained a grant from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources for a pilot composting project.

"We outgrew our grant in six months," says Post. "We had to go back to DNR and work out water and site permits for a much larger facility, much faster than we had originally planned."

Black Oak Organics contracts to haul cafeteria wastes from Missouri State University and Drury University at the same rate that the universities would have paid to landfill the wastes. They are also paid to pick up wood and sheetrock wastes from area construction sites. Revenues from hauling put the company at the break-even point.

"Profits come from the sale of finished compost to nurseries and landscapers," Post explained. "We give our construction companies credit for between 20 and 30 yards of finished compost to improve the soil at their new construction sites." The incentive works-they usually purchase more compost.

Black Oak Organics occupies 17 acres at the edge of town. It process 550-600 cubic yards (137-150 tons) of organics per week. Most of the waste is construction waste, but an estimated 30 percent is food waste. It takes about ten weeks and 36,000-40,000 gallons of water to make a finished batch of 250-300 cubic yards of compost.

Increasing environmental regulations and incentives are helping Post's business. New air quality and stormwater regulations require better management of construction site wastes. Developers seeking certification points for U.S. Green Building Council standards can earn them by recycling their construction wastes close to the site and returning it as a finished soil amendment. "It's hard for us to keep up with demand," says Post.

Assistance for identifying these opportunities is available through the environmental assistance program of the Missouri Business Development Program Web site at www.missouribusiness.net/eac.

This story was featured in the January 2009 newsletter