Dealing with trash can be a hassle. Areas compact it, recycle it, and just plain haul it. Keystone has added a new option: compost it.

Composting is an environmentally friendly way of dealing with vegetable waste, as many home gardeners know. Keystone began using this approach on an industrial scale at its Keystone Ranch restaurant four years ago, expanded it to the Conference Center two years ago, and most recently—and boldly—to the Outpost restaurant, atop remote North Peak at 11,400 feet, in February 2005.

Composting of kitchen waste reduces the waste stream, converting about five to 10 tons of vegetable matter at each restaurant into four to eight cubic yards of compost. The area uses the end product for landscaping and also makes some available to its staff.

The Outpost program has an additional goal: to reduce the waste tonnage the area must move off the mountain from its Outpost restaurant. The area uses its utility cats to haul the trash from the site. “That takes a lot of effort,” says David November, environmental manager at Keystone. “We haul out the trash one or two times a week. We figured if we could get some of the heavy vegetable waste out of the stream, it would make it easier and safer for the cat drivers,” Composting the kitchen’s vegetable waste shrinks the waste stream tonnage by five to 10 percent. “It’s significant, when you think about how much trash we have to haul down the mountain. Composting really helps make the trip safer and saves a lot of energy.”

And the impact will likely grow. “We’re still learning how to use the system, so those figures will increase,” says November. Combined with the area’s recycling effort, the Outpost’s waste stream is reduced by almost half—40 to 50 percent, November estimates. Keystone moves the recyclables from the Outpost by gondola to the main Keystone Mountain, where they are consolidated with trash and recyclables from the area’s main mountaintop lodge and catted off the mountain from there.

November acknowledges that the program works because of the enthusiastic support of the kitchen staffs. “All three staffs have been great about it,” he says. “They’ve all been interested. They know what material can be composted and what can’t. That makes a difference. The higher-end kitchens with less turnover in the staffs have the ability to handle the program.”


Assisting Nature’s Work
The process is simple. Kitchen staff separate the vegetable waste into containers during food preparation and empty them into the composting bin. Either the staff or November and his assistant add wood chips and moisture as necessary, to keep the compost mix correct. And two or three times a week, November and his assistant, or in some cases the restaurant staff, turn the compost. “At the Outpost, we trained the kitchen staff because we could only get there about once a week,” November says.“It’s not difficult.”

The composting tubs, made by Green Mountain Technologies, are 4 feet high by 8 feet in diameter. To mix the contents, one or two people spin the top, and a motorized auger churns up the compost—just like the beaters of a giant mixing bowl. It takes perhaps 10 minutes to manually turn the top and auger.

And strangely enough, the composting process generates enough heat to function throughout the winter. “We started using the equipment at the Outpost in February 2005, and the mix was up to 130 degrees in late March,” November says. That’s the minimum temperature required to kill germs and make the process really cook.

However, the process does require regular attention. It’s necessary, as with all composting, to keep the moisture and organic content correct, and to keep the material properly mixed. Management of the Outpost tub is a challenge in spring and fall, November says, when access is limited. At these times, it’s probably best to tend it once a week or to empty the bin—as Keystone learned the hard way. Last fall, a sudden drop in temperature came with early snow and froze the Outpost’s compost pile solid. It had been dormant and lost its heat, and the composting system at the Outpost won’t crank up again until this summer.


Final Analysis
“The bottom line is, it works—even at 11,400 feet,” November says. “At 9,300 feet [the elevation of the Ranch and the Conference Center], it works really well. Given the insulating nature of the tubs, composting is very effective, even on the north side of the Conference Center.”

But speaking of the bottom line, the system is not cheap. “These tubs cost about $7,500 each. Mostly, we are saving money on the trash hauling fees. For that, I’m not sure how soon it would pay itself back. But it’s gratifying to be able to take the vegetables and mix them with wood chips and come out with a useful product. It’s simple and it works.”