Perhaps as much as 20% of Metro Louisville's waste stream is made up of food waste. This comes from homes, restaurants, groceries, schools and other businesses. We throw away thousands of tons of this waste each year. For example, Heine Brothers' Coffee throws away 50 tons of coffee grounds each year from its five neighborhood cafes. This rotting garbage costs significant money to move and takes up dwindling landfill space.

Composting is a natural process that creates healthy, rich soil out of plant waste. This process occurs every day in our yards and parks and forests to create new life from the old. Yard waste is currently composted in Louisville. Now our community's food waste can be turned into a rich soil amendment instead of just being thrown away.

Breaking New Grounds currently combines food waste from Heine Brothers' Coffee (coffee grounds), Whole Foods and Wild Oats markets (vegetables, produce, flowers, fruit), cardboard, straw and woodchips in outdoor bins in a “hot” composting process. In April 2007, as a result of a partnership with Brown-Forman Corporation, Breaking New Grounds will add spent grains from the Brown-Forman Distillery to the hot composting project.

The compost pile quickly heats to over 130°F and maintains these elevated temperatures as the composted materials are broken down. The mass will shrink of its own accord and continue decomposing. After approximately 12 weeks, the compost pile has reduced its volume by 50%, and has cooled to closer to 95-100° F.

At this point, the compost is taken to the worm beds and fed to the worms. The worms eat the compost, and the worms excrete the compost as worm castings, or vermicompost. This valuable product sells for a significant premium compared to typical composts.