Breaking down the Island’s food waste

With the press of a few commands displayed on a touch-screen monitor, Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School’s new composter whirred to life as the internal blades rotated inside the metal container and paddled leftover food inside. An earthy, vinegary-sweet odor quickly filled the air next to the machine.

The composter is managed by charter school juniors Augie Warner and Christian Hayes, and the young students are at the forefront of an issue that a coalition of people across the Island are striving for: reducing the Vineyard’s food waste by 70 percent by 2035. 

Last Friday, the charter school showcased its EcoRich Elite II composter to a small crowd of students, faculty, and Island environmentalists. It’s the first school on the Vineyard to have its own on-campus composter, and other schools have started to follow suit. Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School has a slightly larger composter that was turned on May 26, and Chilmark School has an indoor FoodCycler, a type of food recycler, in its kitchen.

Sophie Mazza, community food waste director of Island Grown Initiative (IGI), said the goal is to have a food recycler at all of the Vineyard’s schools as well as a composter at all of the transfer stations on the Island. In April, voters in four out of the six Vineyard towns approved financially backing the acquisition of composters. Meanwhile, Edgartown is pursuing a grant for its own composter, and while Tisbury hasn’t made a commitment yet, Mazza said that the town’s residents can likely use the composter in Oak Bluffs because the municipalities have joint waste disposal efforts. 

Mazza said roughly 16 million pounds of food waste is shipped off-Island annually. 

“That adds to ferry traffic, greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change, and also just a missed opportunity to use such a valuable resource here that can strengthen our local food system,” Mazza said. 

During the gathering, Scott Goldin, assistant director of the charter school, said it was important to have students involved in finding solutions and that Warner and Hayes both sought to manage the machine. 

“It’s just a crazy piece of technology to have,” Warner said, particularly considering the charter school is a small institution that currently serves around 180 students. 

The machine is able to process around 100 pounds of food on a daily basis, which the blades mash over 24 hours. Afterward, the compost is collected in buckets and cured for a few weeks to become usable, such as for fertilizer. Warner and Hayes are setting the routine for future charter school students. 

For the students, this was an opportunity to help a community issue and raise awareness. 

“We haven’t even graduated yet, and we can still contribute to such a global, big problem,” Hayes said. 

Goldin also highlighted other benefits to the composter, like requiring less physical labor to get rid of food waste and attracting less animals, like seagulls and rats, to the dumpster. 

Mazza told The Times that the composter was in its first phase focused on residential waste, and plans were underway to perform commercial-scale food waste processing. IGI once had a large food processor as a part of a pilot program that ended in 2024, but the space was converted for farming to support the nonprofit’s mission to feed the Vineyard community.

Still, Mazza said the pilot showed the possibility of long-term solutions that several Island groups, including the Martha’s Vineyard Commission’s Trash Task Force, want to pursue but in the right location. Mazza said there were a few potential spots on the Island, but declined to say where until more details were available.