![]() Of the 615 local jurisdictions in the state, 445 have set up their programs - a 70% compliance rate. Last year, California began enacting a law requiring that municipalities set up mandatory curbside organic waste pickup and composting. Nine states - California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington - have enacted laws over the past decade that divert organic waste from landfills to composting facilities, though composting requirements and opportunities for residents and businesses vary by state. (Seattleites send 125,000 tons of food and yard waste to composting facilities each year, turning those scraps into compost for local parks and gardens.) Pilot programs are underway in Boston, Pittsburgh and Jacksonville, Florida. Mandatory composting programs have thrived over the past decade in cities such as San Francisco Portland, Oregon and Seattle. – Sally Brown, professor of environmental and forest sciences at the University of Washington When thrown in incinerators, moist organic waste requires intense energy consumption to keep the burner temperatures high. When buried in landfills, organic waste breaks down and releases methane, a greenhouse gas that traps 25 times more heat than carbon dioxide, according to the U.S. Goldstein, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group. This is “problematic and not sustainable,” said Eric A. “It’s easy once you get going, but it is an investment it takes a little extra time and patience.”įood scraps and yard waste comprise around a third of municipal waste streams that head to landfills and incinerators. “I’ve always been environmentally conscious, so it was a no-brainer for me,” she said. Whitham said she was excited to see her Los Angeles-area city roll out a mandatory composting program. That container then is picked up weekly by the city’s waste management and taken to a private composting facility, where the company sells the compost at its discretion, mostly for agriculture. ![]() Once the pail fills up, she tosses the contents into her garden’s composting pile or into the green bin the city distributed to residents last year.Īs mandated under a new state law, Claremont requires that residents stop tossing food waste into garbage cans but instead separate it into a different lidded container. ![]() In her Claremont, California, home, Katja Whitham keeps a covered metal pail on the kitchen counter and a bowl in the freezer, throwing in old coffee grounds, tea bags, vegetable peels, cheese and meat scraps. “People very often underestimate the amount of education outreach that’s required.” “It’s tough because it’s really easy to put your food waste in the garbage,” she said. While it takes time, some communities that have embraced composting programs have shown marked decreases in the amount of organic waste that ends up in the dump and have saved taxpayer money in landfill fees.Ĭomposting takes a shift in behavior and patience, said Sally Brown, a professor of environmental and forest sciences at the University of Washington who has studied the impacts of municipal composting programs. They require upfront investments in new bins and compost facilities, as well as in public education efforts to change long-held ideas of what goes in the trashcan. Supporters say these programs reduce emissions, free up landfill space, create jobs and produce soil free of harmful fertilizers that pollute water sources. communities of different sizes and political leanings have created mostly voluntary composting programs, with mandatory programs concentrated in large cities and a handful of blue states. ![]() “New Yorkers want to do the right thing,” she said. Once the city rolls out curbside organic waste collection by the end of next year, she said, New Yorkers will realize how “simple” the process is. The council passed it by a veto-proof margin. ![]() The Big Apple’s composting plans are both ambitious and aggressive, said Council Member Sandy Nurse, who chairs the Committee on Sanitation and pushed for a “zero waste” legislative package that includes the composting measure. If signed by Democratic Mayor Eric Adams, the city’s mandate would be the largest municipal composting program in the country, keeping 8 million pounds of organic waste every day out of landfills (around the weight of 160 full garbage trucks) and drastically reducing the city’s methane emissions. In its fight against both climate change and rats, the New York City Council overwhelmingly passed a new ordinance earlier this month that will require residents to dispose of food scraps and yard waste in vermin-proof curbside containers for future compost, diverting organic materials from landfills and turning them into rich soil. ![]()
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