Food scraps from meal preparation at Akron’s Crave restaurant go into a 5-gallon bucket in the kitchen. Periodically, it’s emptied into a lined 95-gallon garbage can, but unlike most waste, this isn’t destined for a landfill.Half-eaten food left on plates by University of Akron students at Rob’s Cafe and the Trackside Grille at Quaker Square gets similar treatment. So, too, do the disposable plates, cups and silverware from UA.And at the Akron Zoo, leftover bones from the lions, tigers and bears and half-eaten fish from the penguins are collected, along with tons of animal manure mixed with straw and sawdust.All of this is part of Summit County’s year-old recycling program for leftover food and other organic waste.What begins with containers of smelly food scraps sometimes offensive enough to knock your socks off ends after a composting process that produces a non-odorous, environment-friendly soil additive.The Summit-Akron Solid Waste Management Authority launched the program a year ago with $97,300 from its own funds, making it unique in the state, said Linda Oros, spokeswoman for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.Food and organic wastes from 19 Summit County sites are collected and recycled by Rosby Resource Recycling in the Cleveland suburb of Brooklyn Heights. The company will be paid up to $75,000.The material is composted in giant rows, or “windrows,” and turned into a dark peat moss-like soil additive that the company intends to sell by the bag next year. Crave restaurant was the first to sign on to the program in December. Others followed, among them Summa St. Thomas Hospital, Sterling Jewelers and St. Hilary School and Church in Fairlawn, the Boy Scouts’ Camp Manatoc in Boston Township, Courtyard by Marriott in Stow, Hale Farm and Village in Bath Township, St. Mary Catholic Church in Hudson, Twinsburg High School and Wilcox Primary in Twinsburg and Totally Cooked Catering in Cuyahoga Falls.To date, the program has recycled 469,267 pounds or 234.6 tons of food and other organic wastes, according to data from the waste authority. The biggest contributors, by weight, are Rob’s Cafe, with 234,211 pounds, and the Akron Zoo, with 160,303 pounds, according to data through Aug. 31. Rosby Resource Recycling composted some food waste in 1996-97 at its 80-acre complex, and resumed the operation in 2009, said company spokesman Ian Rosby.It is handling 30 to 40 tons of food wastes a day, mostly from its 110 food-waste customers in the Cleveland area, he said.The wastes arrive at the Brooklyn Heights facility in compostable synthetic bags, which are placed into windrows that are up to 250 feet long, 10 feet high and 14 feet wide.Some yard waste is added.The material is later shredded. It takes 45 to 60 days to compost or naturally decay at temperatures of 160 degrees. The piles are turned every three to five days and the materials get screened twice in the processing. The material then cures for at least 45 days.One of the biggest local cheerleaders for food recycling is Akron’s DeAnna Akers, co-owner and co-head chef at Crave.“We’re totally behind it. …We do what we can for the city and try to lead by example,” she said. “It’s a great program and worth the extra effort. Doing this will help make Akron a better place to live and work.”The biggest task was training staff about what materials can be recycled, she said.The rules are simple: yes to food, organic material, paper and wood and no to glass, plastic foam, metal-wire or twist ties, plastic or plastic wrap, rubber bands, twine or rope, plastic or latex gloves.Her restaurant’s food wastes are picked up two or three times a week. It also recycles all glass, plastic and cardboard, she said.Recycling the food waste from Rob’s Cafe at UA is helping the environment and having a big impact on the university’s trash bill, said Robin Hadnett, general manager of residential dining services.The university signed up for the program in January and has recycled nearly 120 tons from Rob’s Cafe and the Trackside Grille. Rob’s Cafe serves about 3,000 meals a day and the Trackside Grille at Quaker Square serves 600 to 1,000 meals a day, she said.“It was a no-brainer for us and we’re very happy with the program,” she said. “The numbers we’re getting are impressive.”Douglas Piekarz, vice president of planning and conservation programs at the Akron Zoo, said, “It was fairly painless and, frankly, I am a little surprised at how simple it was and how smoothly it went. It fits right in with the zoo’s zero waste goals.”Getting rid of animal wastes is a never-ending problem, he said. The waste is often mixed with bedding — hay or sawdust — and that’s acceptable in the recycle program.The zoo cannot compost its own waste because it is too close to neighbors who might find the odors objectionable, he said.Summit County’s subsidized program was set up to show participants how easy it is to recycle food wastes, and the largest participants are being encouraged to continue the program at their own expense in the future, said Yolanda Walker, executive director of the waste authority. “We tried to take the risk out of the program for the parties, to show them it could and would work,” she said.The university and the zoo are looking at options to continue food recycling on their own, said Hadnett and Piekarz.Walker said the district intends to continue the food recycling program, which expires Dec. 31. There are two one-year options to renew.The long-term goal is to generate enough interest to support a viable Summit County pickup route for a firm like Rosby Resource Recycling, and the restaurants in downtown Akron could help make that happen by getting involved, she said.The district spent about $15,000 on bins, plus $7,300 for educational-promotional material, she said.Through Aug. 31, 2,493 containers have been emptied at a cost of $11.50 per cart.The cost of picking up and processing the waste is $28,669, or about 6 cents a pound, far less than the $75,000 that was allocated, said Marcie Kress, a spokeswoman for the solid waste authority.Parties interested in joining the program can contact the authority at 330-374-0383 or www.saswma.org.Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.