PHOENIX — The city of Phoenix is taking new steps to cut down on food waste by partnering with a technology company that helps turn table scraps into compost for local farms.

The company, Mill, sells subscriptions to a food recycling system that can break down all sorts of food scraps, from banana peels and fruit pits to coffee grounds and fish bones.

How company impacts larger Phoenix food recycling efforts

With 25 systems now in use across official city buildings, Phoenix is now home to the largest deployment of Mill food recyclers across local government buildings in the country, according to a Tuesday news release.

Amanda Jordan, the city’s circular economy project manager, hopes these machines will help Arizona shrug off its title as the worst state for food waste, which was given by LawnStarter in 2022.

“Having Mill food recyclers in nearly every breakroom of the city hall campus is a great way to engage staff in efforts to achieve our food waste diversion goals,” Jordan said in the release. “We hope to lead by example as we encourage our residents to find better ways to repurpose food waste and scraps.”

How Phoenix food recycling efforts are changing

In addition to being bad for the environment and contributing to methane gases, food waste is also costly, according to a nonprofit called Waste Not Arizona, which stops unspoiled food from going into landfills and redirects it to feed people in need.

Mill president and co-founder Harry Tannenbaum said the state throws away $9.5 billion in food waste each year.

“That is just crazy, but in the U.S., something like 40% of the food we grow ends up going to waste,” Tannenbaum told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Wednesday. “It’s like going to the grocery store, buying five bags of groceries, and leaving two in the parking lot.”

His company’s partnership with the city is helping officials keep food out of landfills and support local food systems, he added.

“In the Phoenix area, there’s a full loop pathway to recycle these grounds,” Tannenbaum said. “We have a local farm partner called Recycled City, which uses the grounds that come out of Mills to grow produce on those farms.”

How long has Mill played a role in Phoenix food recycling strategies?

Mill’s partnership with Recycled City — or R.City for short — started in 2023.

“There are tons of Phoenicians who are embracing this idea of food recycling to support local jobs and agriculture and save money on food waste,” Tannenbaum said. “It also just so happened that the city of Phoenix, as a whole, has a really strong leadership position around reducing the amount of food waste from landfills.”

Those who want to try out this Phoenix food recycling strategy can pay $35 per month to get one of Mill’s systems in their homes.

They just have to throw their household food waste into the bin and set it outside their house once a month. R.City will pick up bags inside the bin and bring the contents to the farm, where they’ll be turned into compost.

This Phoenix food recycling tool can also help reduce load on roads

There’s also a bonus benefit: It reduces the stress on the Valley’s roadways, according to Tannenbaum.

“There’s a lot of energy and effort and hard work that goes into waste management. And food is a big chunk of that material, a quarter of the landfill is food, and most of that food is water,” Tannenbaum said.

Thus, minimizing the amount of food waste that goes into those trucks will also lighten the weight they carry.

“We can get that water out of trucks. It means waste management companies can have more efficient routes, longer routes,” Tannenbaum said. “We’re literally taking the weight out of those trucks and we’re literally lightening the load as they’re rolling through their routes.”