Every bit of leftover food at the Kearsarge Food Hub finds its way back to the soil.

Whether it’s bruised tomatoes that can’t be sold or scraps from sandwiches, almost nothing goes to waste.

At Sweet Beet Farm, a certified organic vegetable growing operation in Bradford, they turn food waste into nutrient-rich compost to grow fresh produce from what would have otherwise been discarded.

The farm is part of a growing movement to eliminate food scraps from the waste stream and produce a clean organic product at the same time. Over time, it equals tons of material that is diverted from the state’s landfills.

Pierre Hahn, Sweet Beet’s co-founder, said this is their second year composting, and the benefits are twofold for him.

“It allows us to close the loop and make sure that nothing is going to waste and is really adding value by creating this fertility for the farm,” said Hahn.

Last year, the farm composted 9,000 pounds of food scraps and 4,000 pounds of garden waste.

Hanna Flanders, director of community engagement at the Kearsarge Food Hub, said it’s important to compost to be a sustainable player in the food system.

“We are trying to keep all the inputs that we need to grow food as local as possible,” said Flanders. “So that means it’s a lot more resilient, like we can rely on the systems we built here versus having to ship whatever inputs the farm needs.”

Lewis Farm in Concord and Work Song Farm in Hopkinton provide options for people to drop off food scraps for composting.

In 2023, the Department of Environmental Services reported that 171,785 tons of food waste from residents, businesses, and institutions were sent to landfills, accounting for 24% of the state’s total waste.

Recently, the state has increased efforts to divert food waste from landfills to tackle this issue.

As of Feb. 1, a new law is in effect – any establishment producing at least one ton of food waste per week, such as schools, hospitals, restaurants and large businesses, can no longer send it to landfills or incinerators if an authorized composting or alternative facility exists within a 20-mile radius.

Michael Wimsatt, waste management division director at the state’s Department of Environmental Services, said that the initiative is still in its infancy.

Right now, the state’s priority isn’t issuing penalties for noncompliance but rather helping establishments understand the new regulations and the resources available for proper food waste disposal.

“We’re really in the mode right now just trying to do outreach, learn what we need to learn and to implement the ban appropriately,” said Wimsatt. “What we really want to do is try to encourage the development of additional infrastructure for treating food waste through technologies like composting or anaerobic digestion.”

While the Kearsarge Food Hub doesn’t generate anywhere near a ton of food waste per week, they are preventing their waste from ending up in landfills, where it would contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.

“Even if we’re staying small scale with the system, we are communicating it clearly so that other people might be able to implement similar systems, or take the idea and bring it to their town or scale up,” said Flanders.

Sruthi Gopalakrishnan can be reached at sgopalakrishnan@cmonitor.com. Subscribe to her Trash Talk newsletter for more reporting on the environment and solid waste.