Featured Subscriber of the Month: Hanalei Shave Ice

Slow down, take a load off, and embrace the ALOHA spirit. That’s the vibe at Hanalei Shave Ice, one of O-Town Compost’s longtime commercial composting partners located at 1308 Lang Avenue in Orlando. Here is where you will find Hanalei’s charming ‘ice-truck’ nestled in the backyard of The House on Lang under the beautiful trees and hanging moss. Owner, Brandy, is following in her father’s footsteps by serving up delicious shaved ice treats. The ingredients are always fresh, seasonal, and free of fake chemicals and sugars. Did we mention that ALL the serviceware used to serve and consume these treats are compostable?!

Before she started her shaved ice business, Brandy worked for Darden and was tasked with implementing the company’s “green team.” She was always specifically interested in capturing food waste to make a valuable end-product rather than see it wasted in the trash. Diving more into her Hawaiian culture, Brandy learned how Hawaiians prioritize environmental stewardship, and how the practice of composting was ubiquitous. According to Brandy, “living aloha and being good to the Earth is just part of one’s responsibility as a human citizen.” After opening her shaved ice truck, Brandy was composting all of the business’s waste on her own but could not keep up due to the high volume. Once she did some searching on the internet, she was happy to find the services of O-Town Compost.

Since partnering with O-Town in October 2021, Hanalei Shave Ice has diverted 869 pounds from the landfill! In fact, 95% of the food truck’s waste goes to compost, leaving only a small bag for recycling and an even smaller bag for trash at the end of the day. Customers have noticed these efforts too, and given her lots of positive feedback. They get excited about the possibility of composting, and through the example of Hanalei, can picture themselves doing it at home. As Brandy advises, “it only takes a small change to start.” That being said, Brandy’s heart sinks when she sees single-use plastic products being used by other food service businesses. Sure, compostable serviceware can be slightly more expensive than plastic and Styrofoam, but she believes “living Pono” and being good to the environment is an important part of her choices as a brand.

Hanalei Shave Ice definitely stands out as a waste warrior in the Central Florida Community. If you haven’t visited Hanalei Shave Ice before, now is your opportunity! Hanalei has special flavors weekly, so check out their Instagram page to stay updated! Right now, all O-Town Compost subscribers can receive a family 4 pack ($28 value!) when they show an email receipt proving an active residential subscription. This is Brandy’s thanks to her customers who are doing good for their home, family, and for our world.

O-Town subscribers! Each month we want to highlight subscribers that are standing out as waste warriors in our composting community. If you are interested in being featured, send us a direct message or e-mail us at info@o-towncompost.com.

Get Involved With our Partner Farms, and Help Them Pick out Contamination at the Compost Site.

O-Town Compost is growing, and taking on more commercial customers. We’re laser-focused on our mission to divert as much possible food waste from the landfill as we can. For a region like Central Florida, where composting is a bit of a foreign concept, this inevitably leads to contamination. And lately, our partner farms have been receiving higher contamination than they’d like to. Of the total contamination found at our partner compost sites, 99.5% is from commercial customers, not residential subscribers, who are oftentimes self-policing.

We try everything in our control to make sure the correct materials end up in the correct bins, but at the end of the day, we can’t babysit our commercial clients. That’s why we’re asking for our community’s support in filling an occasional volunteer slots to pick out contamination at Froot Farm in Christmas, FL and Everoak Farm in East Orlando.

Details:

Volunteers will be given the address of the farm that needs the help, and the contact info of the farmer.
Time slots will be around an hour for volunteers, or however long it takes to remove the bulk of the contamination.
Trash pickers and buckets will be provided, so volunteers won’t have to bend down to get contaminants.
Please dress for the compost site (i.e. boots, hat for sun, sun-screen). You’ll probably get some soil on you.
If interested, please email us at info@towncompost.com, and we’ll reach out when we have opportunities available.

Composting Advocacy Opportunities

To achieve the goal of a Zero Waste Central Florida, it’s going to take political advocacy and action at the community grassroots level. Going forward, we want to bring together our subscribers, who are willing to write, call, and canvass for political change in support of food waste recycling.

Our subscribers are already doing a lot, diverting their household’s food scraps from the landfill, and deserve all the praise. Although, to live in a zero waste society, we need to unify our voice.

Click on the link below, and send us an email letting us know you’re interested in joining the Composting Advocacy Group, and we’ll be in touch shortly with more information about our efforts. Members of The Compost Advocacy Group will be subject to discounts, and promo codes.

I'm interested in being more active in further composting in Central Florida. CLICK HERE .