What is Rescue Organic Refuse all About?

Preventing Organic Refuse from becoming Organic Waste. Now, what does that mean....

Organic* Refuse is a rare and precious commodity. Most organics consumers hold it in their hands every day, not knowing how to contribute it back into the Organic* Lifecycle. Organics consumers know the necessity of disposing of organic waste properly: organic waste being living matter, i.e., vegetables and other green waste diverted from landfills to non-organic* county composting facilities. Organic waste as opposed to Organic* Refuse seems like just a matter of semantics.

For the sake of our discussion, and the purposes of this blog, we will agree that “Organic Refuse” is living matter from organic food and organic products made from ingredients certified organic, i.e., non-GMO, no industrial insecticides/pesticides, fertilizers or herbicides. Once “Organic Refuse” is contaminated by non-certified organically grown matter, it becomes “Organic Waste”; it can no longer be reintroduced into the Organic* Lifecycle. Contaminated “Organic Waste” should be added to the Green Waste bin along with yard trimmings and pet fecal matter for disposal and composting by the county.

What if, while it is still “Organic Refuse” it can be rescued from contamination, collected, composted and reutilized in Organic* farming/planting? Sustained in the Organic Lifecycle. Unfortunately, most organics consumers lack the space, materials, apparatus and/or the time to perform the Organic Lifecycle process from cradle to grave. And if a small household does compost, there is often an excess of composted material which usually ends up in Green Waste bins; mixing the Organic compost with contaminated Green Waste: a loss of irreplaceable Organic Refuse.

Organic Refuse is a commodity far too precious to be left to hope or faith in big business and government regulators, who, when they do act, act unilaterally and broadly. It will take a concerted effort by determined individuals, partnering with active organizations, and conscientious businesses to realize an effective, local solution. Rescue Organic Refuse’s efforts focus on identifying and engaging active organizations; seeking out conscientious businesses; and reaching out to determined, caring, concerned individuals and families, to create and maintain an exemplary Organic* Lifecycle program. And you can be part.

* non-GMO, no industrial insecticides/pesticides, fertilizers or herbicides

It All Started with TED

In November 2011, I was introduced to TED while searching Netflix for a good documentary. I came across “The Future We Will Create.” I was moved by so many of the presentations and the back story of how TED has grown into the type of organization we (those who are unfamiliar with TED) always wished existed. Honestly, by the time the film ended, I was overcome with a renewed sense of hope and the realization and belief that I could become an agent of change.

For the sake of this TED Story, Organic Refuse is Certified Organic: Non-GMO, no pesticides, and no industrial fertilizers or herbicides. And Green Waste refers to non-organic materials e.g. contaminated with GMOs, pesticides and the like.

I am on Gerson Therapy. If you are not familiar with Gerson Therapy, you can learn more at gerson.com. Suffice it to say it is a strict Organic diet whose patients consume roughly 40lbs of organic food per day. Every day, I produce an enormous amount of Organic Refuse: apple cores, banana peels, organic coffee grounds, ends of carrots, celery stocks and the trimmings of a variety of Organic produce. The refuse weighs heavy on my mind.

I live in a small condo, without a yard or outdoor area; no room for any type of composting apparatus; and our complex does not have a Green Recycle Bin. The guilt I feel about throwing the refuse in the trash is taxing enough, but the fact that the refuse is purely organic (a rare commodity) is both agitating and galling. I began to visualize thousands of Gerson patients all combining their pure Organic Refuse with common Green Waste, or worse the trash. Then, while shopping at Organic Grocers and Farmers’ Markets, I envisioned all the organic consumers around me wasting their organic refuse. The enormity of the imaginable loss of so much Organic Refuse made me angry at myself for not only contributing to the problem, but being acutely aware and doing nothing.

Now, I realize that there are those who compost their organic refuse at home. But a family on a standard piece of land can only use so much compost before they eventually dispose of the excess with Green Waste. I then began to perceive the magnitude of raw, pure organic refuse potentially being contaminated by Green waste. I asked myself, what if I could rescue organic refuse before it is contaminated and wasted. How could I maintain the Organic Lifecycle of post-consumer refuse. Thus Rescue Organic Refuse, a non-profit organization was born.