Photo: Tina with Executive Chef, Christian Quinones from The Marriott Hotel West Palm Beach. We believe in Customer Relationships and become part of the client family.
Today we’d like to introduce you to Tina Grene.
Tina let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I grew up in Los Angeles where I felt a real connection with Mother Earth. From an early age, I was concerned about what we were doing to make it a better place. Much of my work background had been in tv and film production in California. Then on to Atlanta and Washington, D.C. for sales and marketing. After being involved in a horrific motorcycle accident, I felt that I needed to pay it forward. I felt that I was saved to do something special with my life. I went to work for my friend’s Recycling company out of Atlanta. I mainly consulted with multi-family communities here in Miami, to teach the residents and management how simple it would be to separate paper goods from food waste (garbage).
From that position, I started googling best practices with regards to food waste. I was amazed at the new Bans on The Landfill, starting with Mayor Michael Bloomberg in New York City. He pioneered this movement which has started to stretch out across our nation. Properties who create the most food waste such as Grocery Stores, Hotels, and Resorts, Country Clubs, Corporate Cafeterias, the military, prisons, etc. are going to be fined if they continue to send their huge amounts of food waste to our overcrowded and toxic landfills. I believe that donating food to the hungry…using it to feed animals…that’s great; however, most of these large properties just let their waste management company drive over and pick up large plastic bags of garbage out of nasty stinky dumpsters and compactors and haul it off to the landfill.
Many times, these companies tell their clients that they will take the food waste to a composting facility, but if you follow the trucks, they many times end up in the landfill. Very few people realize that the plastic garbage bag liners will not break down quickly on the landfill…estimates are that they may last 500 years and longer. I’d heard a good deal about biodigester facilities but I hadn’t heard that there were small stainless steel machines that look like dishwashers, that were for commercial use.
5 years later, I’ve been marketing these machines. There are many reasons to use ORCA (from Totally Green). It’s a big step in helping the brand with their “green initiatives”…. it keeps the commercial kitchens cleaner…. no plastic garbage bags are used…. food waste no longer sits around in open garbage containers inside the kitchen, sometimes attracting fruit flies and rodents…. kitchen stewards no longer are made to lift hundreds of pounds of food waste and throw bags into dumpsters…. loading docks that used to attract pests and rodents are no longer dirty and stinky.
Where a hotel is in a neighborhood of homeowners and condo owners, they can walk past loading docks and no longer smell garbage. And talk about Reducing the brands’ Carbon Footprint: think of how far those big garbage trucks travel on our local streets and then out to the landfills. No tourists and guests want to see garbage trucks or smell old rotting food waste.
Our ORCA machines have scales to weigh the food that goes into the customers’ machines…that information gives a real view of the exact amount of food waste diverted from the landfill and how much C02 was eliminated from our atmosphere by using the ORCA. I feel that I am helping my environment 1 machine at a time. www.feedtheorca.com.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The first couple of years were really tough. My colleague and I started with Miami Beach restaurants. They didn’t have space for a machine in the “back of the house”. The BOH doesn’t make them money, so whatever room is available, another table will be in the front of the house…. Then, we marketed to the larger hotels here in Miami.
One of the largest told my colleague that he was surprised to have never heard of a commercial biodigester and had been in the food & beverage industry for over 30 years. He said that he thought it sounded incredible but he wanted to SEE one here in Miami. Well, we were new to south Florida and didn’t have a machine as yet. His response was, “I don’t want to be a guinea pig”. I love it but I’m not going to be the last one to say yes! I was happy to learn that most large hotel properties have a “green team” so we were able to give power point presentations and describe this “magical process’.
You can actually stand next to an ORCA that has 800 lbs of food waste inside: you will not smell the garbage and you will not hear the machines’ motor… That’s because it is an “AEROBIC DIGESTION PROCESS”, meaning in the presence of oxygen…. the opposite of a Landfill. The moment that you place food on top of food without oxygen inside of a plastic bag (even in your own kitchen), the food immediately starts to rot and smell. NOT with ORCA. We supply oxygen and small amounts of water to the inside of the machine which is why there are no odors.
Our proprietary PowerZyme has NO Chemicals and actually DIGESTS the food waste inside the machine into safe grey water. No food particles leave the machine, just water. All of this happens within a 24-hour period. Some foods like bread and pasta are gone quickly while certain other foods may take a bit longer. If YOU can eat it, the ORCA can eat it.
5 years has gone by and we are known throughout the United States and globally. I sure am glad that I didn’t give up!
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I am a Food Waste Diversion Consultant. I market ORCA. I love that the main company, Totally Green manufactures the machines in North America and they listen to our clients needs. We are currently working with a large grocery chain and are making a prototype with them. Once this machine is working well, we will share it with all grocers.
Also, we have been manufacturing small ORCAS for freighters that may hold just 8-10 staff onboard. One of the first companies that brought biodigesters to the U.S. used wood chips…another makes the end user use warm water which is very difficult for hotel kitchens where the water comes in at 140-150 degrees. Orca uses cold water, very little water, and very little electricity.
Orca mainly RENTS the machine so there’s no CapX outlay. Normally, our nominal rental fee is far less money than the property is currently paying for their waste management company to pick up and dump in the landfill.
I am proud that when a client tells us that they are using the ORCA more than they’d anticipated and they actually need a larger unit, we will take back the smaller used machine and upgrade them to a larger machine. We work as a team, making each client happy.
What were you like growing up?
I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, California. I was actually quite shy until high school and that’s when I started gaining confidence. I never had a business plan or pathway in mind as to where I could end up.
Many of my co-workers ended up being tv producers, on-air reporters, movie stars. I was happy working for the movie stars such as Julie Andrews, Rock Hudson, Marge Champion and Blake Edwards, writer, producer and iconic director. I did what I wanted to do and had no problem jumping from oneTV show, Chuck Barris’ Dating Game and Newlywed Game to freelancing for Marge Champion at her home to traveling throughout Europe on a movie shoot with Julie and Blake…. to going skiing in Gstaad, Switzerland with Blake and his 2 kids and Julie and her daughter. This drove my father crazy as he was from a generation that once you were hired at a company, you stayed for life.
In Washington, D.C., I started a karaoke company and had recording studios on the boardwalks in Ocean City, Md, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Wildwood, N.J. with about 60 high school employees. I also made portable recording studios for private events and traveled with Anheuser-Busch at food shows and spring breaks nationwide for nearly 7 years. My resume makes me look like I’d be 93, like my mother is now! We have longevity in our family, so I see many more great years ahead.
Interests since living with my husband, Jeff Grene: Boating, running a boutique hotel in Great Exuma, Bahamas, competition horseback riding and now, we go “glamping” in an RV with our Hungarian Vizsla Hunting Dog. I am lucky to live with a renaissance man who has so many interests and energy.
My other passion is my one and only charity: Slow Food Miami, a chapter of Slow Food USA. I am a proud Member at Large on the Board of Directors. We raise money so that we can install organic gardens at our local Miami-Dade public and private schools. We believe that it’s important to teach children at a very early age about how to grow their own food. Also, that apples don’t grow in plastic bags inside the grocery store. The kids love to eat what they grow. We sometimes pair the school with a local chef who will teach the kids how to make something like “scissors salsa”. I am on the nominating committee for The Snail of Approval award on a constant look out for chefs and restaurants who source locally. We honor those who buy from our Miami area farms.
Orca and Slow Food Miami work so well together for me. My husband and I love to read every food review, about the new chefs coming to Miami and we try our best to visit Brickell, Wynwood, Design District, and try all that Miami has to offer.
Pricing:
- lst Month FREE Trial
Contact Info:
- Address: (954) 394-3423
LinkedIn: Tina Grene - Website: www.feedtheorca.com
- Phone: 954 394-3423
- Email: [email protected]
- Other: slowfoodmiami.org
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