Food waste up-cycling and resource recovery with Jeff Paine

composting and beyond in Austin, TX

Jeff Paine is co-founder and co-owner with his wife Mel MacFarlane of the Austin, TX-based Break-It-Down - a food waste hauling, composting & creative resource recovery service.

Formed in 2009 out of the couples’ rented duplex to provide a yoga studio, a coffee shop, and a juice bar with a way to steer their compostable waste away from the landfill and into something ecologically friendly, Break-It-Down has grown into a business serving around 800 clients in the greater Austin area, and as far south as San Antonio and as far north as Waco.

In this conversation, Jeff and Josh sketch the history of Break-It-Down, the challenges they have faced, the successes they’ve attained, the quirks, the headaches, the lessons learned, and the creativity that goes into their innovative R&D processes for figuring out better things to do with food waste than entombing it in a landfill. In their schema, composting is the lowest rung on the resource recovery ladder. Their current food waste upcycling repertoire includes high-end dog food and treats [theconsciouspet.life], and nutrient-rich bonemeal fertilizer for gardeners and landscapers.

In this wide-ranging convo, Jeff and Josh talk about the advantages and disadvantages of an academic path in life compared with on-the-job training earned from developing a small business. And they talk about how this affects Jeff and Mel’s philosophy as parents, in particular how it informs their non-traditional approach to schooling for their two sons.