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Website Promotes Composting by Grocers

YARMOUTH, Maine – A new website, HelpMeCompost.com, is targeting food retailers with free access to a searchable national map of composters and collectors that locates nearby facilities and services.

YARMOUTH, Maine — A new website, HelpMeCompost.com, is targeting food retailers with free access to a searchable national map of composters and collectors that locates nearby facilities and services. The site also provides grocers and sustainability coordinators access to experts who can teach them how to prepare their waste for recycling and find collection and compost facilities for them.

"Groceries and other organic waste generators need to know that they have alternatives to land filling — good, cost effective options," said Melanie Solmos, co-founder of the site. "Operating in a sustainable manner is just good business in 2011. Both consumers and industry are moving past the ‘just throw it away’ mentality."

The website’s strategy is to "let the market decide," said Solmos. "When customers (waste generators) discover that they have alternatives, it's a powerful tool for change."

U.S. grocery stores generate an average of 3,375 pounds of compostable food and paper waste for each employee every year, contributing to the 32 million tons of food waste generated in the U.S. every year, said the site, adding, "Unfortunately, 98% of it is wasted through disposal into landfills."