Green Story

EcoMovement Consulting and Hauling was launched September 2009 as a way of raising awareness about waste in a sector -- the restaurant industry -- long mired in it. Rian Bedard has done just that: in just two years, EcoMovement has succeeded in bringing on some of the most familiar names in Seacoast eats, including the Portsmouth Brewery, Pocos, Two Ceres Street, Green Monkey, Ceres Street Bakery, Brazo, Robert’s Maine Grill, Radici, Jumpin’ Jays Fish Café, and many more (a full list of EcoMovement’s business customers can be seen at their website). Whether it means helping divert food scraps into a useful compost pile, or convincing them to switch from plastic to-go containers to compostable ones, EcoMovement is there to help everyone from restaurants to offices to schools find solutions for waste reduction.

EcoMovment’s goal is to “close the loop”, showing people that today’s food scraps can be tomorrow’s food grown in your own garden or local farm. To that end, EcoMovement helps businesses of every stripe -- and restaurants in particular -- reduce their waste and become more sustainable, providing tutorials to staff members which involves teaching them how to separate real waste from items that can actually function as compost or be recycled. They then set up toters which, when filled, are picked up and hauled off to select regional farms, where the refuse is mixed with carbon sources and made into nutrient rich soil. The end result is a program which helps restaurants haul away nearly all of their would-be waste – not only compostable food-waste, but recyclables and trash as well. (As an example, Popovers, the popular downtown Portsmouth eatery went from six containers of trash to just one after consulting with EcoMovement.)

Additionally, this past spring EcoMovement began offering residential curbside compost pickup. For a little over $6 a week, residents in and around the Seacoast can enjoy the peace of mind already enjoyed by many of their favorite restaurants, and have their would-be waste hauled away for a second lease on life.

EcoMovement’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. The subjects of a forthcoming piece on WMUR’s New Hampshire Chronicle, Bedard and EcoMovement have been profiled in media outlets ranging from NPR’s Morning Edition to the Associated Press, the Portsmouth Herald, Foster’s Daily Democrat, as well as myriad blogs from around the country.

“It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it,” quips Bedard. “We should actually be on that Discovery Channel show Dirty Jobs. I’m not sure if Mike Rowe would be cut out for this one.”

It might be unglamorous. It might be dirty. Check that -- it is dirty. But it’s also helping to make the Seacoast a much cleaner -- and greener -- place.