Founded in 2016, Epic Renewal enables companies to support the environment and take responsibility for their own impact. These community composters are committed to building a zero-waste world by keeping food waste out of landfills, using it to nurture soil health and support healthy food systems.
From compostable serveware to zero waste stations, Epic Renewal will green this year’s Kendall Square Challenge from the starting whistle in Cambridge Crossing to our Block Party finale in Tech Square.
Tell us about how you came to Epic Renewal.
When we moved to Los Angeles in 2016, we discovered a clear need for affordable and easy composting solutions like those we had become familiar with on the East Coast, so we launched Epic Renewal to solve for it. We began using bokashi fermentation to compost indoors, and in lesser-used spaces, and have been improving our indoors composting process ever since. We were the only service quite like ours at the time, offering compost collection and processing throughout the larger Los Angeles area, and serving clients such as LUSH cosmetics and the RealReal’s luxury consignment store in Hollywood, as well as over 200 residential households.
When we returned home to New England in 2019, we were thrilled to see the thriving and expanding landscape in our little state. As we relaunched our business here, we were inspired to take all of our learned lessons to improve and empower our greater emerging industry to do this important work more easily and effectively. We now provide easy composting services for home, business, and events. You could say we do the dirty work, and our customers do good! We also offer zero waste consulting to help people further shrink their carbon footprint, and are developing software for other composters like us to do their work more efficiently, and effectively measure their impact.
What waste is underestimated most at big events?
It’s a toss-up between cups and recoverable food for what is most often underestimated when planning an event. Many people don’t consider the environmental cost of manufacturing and end of life impact of their single-use cups, and there are limited good options out there. Many folks aren’t aware that traditional hot drink cups are not recyclable, and the lids and straws from both hot and cold disposable cups go to landfill. We’ve found that events that keep single-use cups out of the mix shrink their waste footprint significantly – it’s a good reason to think about renting reusables or providing a great party favor for your guests to take home!
It’s also incredibly common to end up with an excess of edible food at the end of a big event – catering estimations can be tricky, especially at larger scales. We’re always happy to help ensure that edible, recoverable food finds a place to be safely donated, so it can feed people instead of the trash.
What’s your favorite part of this work?
Our favorite part of our work is the opportunity to help our clients be really proud of their event and its impact. There is nothing better than the feeling at the end of the day of having gotten all the details right, provided a great experience for guests, and diverted a bunch of material from the landfill. Events also provide a great platform for conversations about why composting matters, how building healthy soil can reverse climate change, and begin to destigmatize the topic of waste – it’s a win-win all around!
What happens after you leave the Kendall Square Challenge Block Party?
When we leave the Kendall Square Challenge Block Party, we’ll take all of the compostable waste with us, and process it all at our indoor facility in Central Falls, RI. Through our composting process, we turn it into a nutrient-rich soil amendment within approximately eight weeks. We sell that finished product, and also work with local food access and agriculture projects to help build healthy, resilient soils, and ensure that we’re closing the loop in our local food systems.
How can Kendall companies partner with you on their next big event?
We love working with individuals and businesses of all kinds to rethink their waste. We’ve worked with offices, food service, retail, gyms, cosmetic producers, and more! We’re always open to new challenges, love designing new approaches, and will work with every one of our partners to craft the perfect solution for their unique needs.
We’ll work with our clients to ensure every detail of their event is considered, large or small. We’ve helped customers reduce waste at their events from small weddings to a 6,000-guest marathon. We’ll provide compostable serveware (or recommendations for sourcing your own), work directly with vendors to minimize packaging, and provide clear, beautiful signage and helpful staff. We divert everything organic from landfill with our composting services, and even secure a food recovery partner for leftovers.
If you’re interested in shrinking the waste footprint of your upcoming event, learn more at epicrenewal.org!