Special to Ventura County Star
November 10th 2025
By David Goldstein
Special to Ventura County Star
For the 29th annual America Recycles Day Nov. 15, many recycling coordinators are focusing on food. Making good food out of food you thought would go to waste achieves the highest goals of recycling.
Just keeping food out of landfills is a worthy goal, whether through reuse or recycling. Last week, a new facility opened in Oxnard that can help extract resources from discarded food.
Before recycling, higher priorities are reducing and reusing. At this time of year, many people start thinking about throwing away the pumpkins they bought for Halloween and planned to save until Thanksgiving. Making good food from this “waste” is a far better alternative.
At the Discovery Cube children’s science museum in Santa Ana last month, Danielle Brewer, demonstrator lead in the museum’s kitchen, showed visitors how to turn old pumpkins into delicious food.
She began with pumpkin-skin chips. Simply peel or slice the skin into thin strips, toss with a small amount of oil and a light sprinkle of salt or spice, spread in one layer on a baking sheet, and bake at about 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 to 20 minutes until crisp.
Next, she demonstrated ways to make pumpkin seeds edible. Scoop out the seeds, rinse to remove the stringy pulp, pat dry, toss lightly with oil and seasoning, and bake at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for about 30 minutes, stirring once or twice, until golden and crunchy.
Finally, Brewer explained how to use the inside flesh. Cook uncarved pumpkin pieces in an oven, Instapot, or microwave until soft. Then puree the cooked pumpkin for energy balls or dog treats.
For energy balls, mix about one cup of puree with oats, a spoonful of nut butter and a drizzle of honey or syrup. Roll into balls and refrigerate.
For dog treats, mix the puree with whole-wheat flour and one egg to form a dough, roll out, cut into small shapes, and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes. Never include seeds in dog treats. They can be a choking hazard.
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Brewer also offered tips for saving other foods before they spoil. To reuse bread, wet and heat it or freeze extra loaves to extend shelf life. To revive wilted carrots, soak them in ice water. Lettuce lasts up to four times longer when stored in a container with a damp paper towel.
For many, these methods may seem admirable but not worthwhile. Fortunately, curbside organics collection offers another option.
On Nov. 4, Agromin and Harrison Industries hosted the grand opening of the Mountain View Organics Waste Processing Facility in Oxnard. Costing more than $16 million, the complex includes augers, shredders, screw conveyors, chain beaters, centrifuges and hydraulic presses to remove contaminants and process collected food waste into a paste that Agromin CEO Bill Camarillo described as “like baby food.”
With a capacity of 300 tons per day, the site is now processing about 30 tons daily, Camarillo said. Agromin plans to install a composting system on-site, and when its new facility at Limoneira, near Santa Paula, is completed, possibly next year, material can go there for composting. In the meantime, the paste is loaded into tanker trucks and sent to an anaerobic digester in Victorville, where it becomes natural gas and digestate, which is composted.
State mandates, including Senate Bill 1383, require everyone, whether in a home, at work or at a restaurant or event, to divert food from landfills. For homes collected by Harrison Industries, place food in a plastic bag so it can be pulled from yard waste in curbside organics carts and processed separately. When food rots in landfills, even if most gas is recovered for energy, it still emits methane, a potent climate-changing pollutant.
Whether you bake pumpkin chips, roast seeds, make treats or let your scraps become compost or renewable fuel, keeping organics out of the landfill is a priority this America Recycles Day.
David Goldstein, environmental resource analyst with the Ventura County Public Works Agency, may be reached at 805-658-4312 or
