PHX Reporter

Between catering services, grab-and-go menu items, and the food-court style PHX Kitchens Downtown Food Hall, the Phoenix Convention Center creates literal tons of food waste.
 

Aventura, a subsidiary of Aramark, and the Convention Center are dedicated to being as sustainable and eco-friendly as possible. Leadership in both entities engaged with the City of Phoenix Public Works department back in 2017 to find solutions to diverting food waste. Since then, the Convention Center has turned tons of food waste into compost material.

 

“We’ve developed a really great partnership,” said Lorizelda Stoeller, deputy public works director. “It’s awesome the Convention Center and Aventura are willing to try new things.”  

Through June 2023, the PCC has diverted 58.67 tons of food waste, according to Stoeller.

 

Waste is collected three times a week at the kitchen dock and then the waste is put into a de-packager machine that separates non-organic material. From there, the waste is taken to the City of Phoenix-owned facility at 27th Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road for composting. There, all the food waste generated by the City of Phoenix is processed.  

Denali, a national company, is contracted to run the facility, Stoeller said. They take the compost, bag it up and sell it at big box stores and to local farms. The City of Phoenix parks have also found, and continue to find, use for the compost.  

“It all goes back into the community somehow,” Stoeller said.  

The Convention Center’s composting program was put on pause during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, Stoeller said, but as the PCC geared up to host fan activities for Super Bowl LVII in February 2023 leadership reignited the program.  

The goal of Super Bowl LVII was to be a zero-waste event, Stoeller said. The Phoenix Convention Center during two weeks of fan activity in the building diverted 11 tons of food waste from City landfills to the composting center.  

“Now we are getting ready for the NCAA Men’s Final Four next year and there’s a big emphasis on making that a zero-waste event like we did for Super Bowl LVII,” Stoeller said. 

Original source can be found here.