Towns recycle food waste

#MiddleburyCT #FoodWaste

Trash bags for the food scraps pilot programs are clearly labeled. The different colors make sorting easier. (NVCOG-provided photo)

By MARJORIE NEEDHAM

Three towns that are members of the 15-town Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments (NVCOG) – Ansonia, Seymour and Woodbury – have launched programs to divert food waste from their trash, and a volunteer group in Southbury is working on a program to divert food waste there. Middlebury is a NVCOG member.

The Woodbury program launched February 7, 2023. It asks residents to separate food scraps from regular garbage so that less waste goes to incinerators or landfills. Garbage disposal costs are increasing for municipalities in Connecticut and the intent of the program is save taxpayer money. The program is free to residents. and a grant from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection is paying the costs.

NVCOG said 2,000 Woodbury transfer station users were invited to participate in a program that is unique because residents drop off green bags with food scraps in a special container at the transfer station rather than having curbside pickup. It reported they are seeing reduced contamination rates compared to curbside communities as a result.

Pre-launch outreach efforts included a number of public events and digital outreach through social media. Grant funds helped purchase dozens of table-top compost bins as well as environmental education books to help residents learn about and participate in the program.

Woodbury residents put food scraps in green bags and regular garbage into orange ones. The bags with food scraps are sent to Quantum Biopower in Southington, where the organic waste is transformed into renewable energy.

The first of several meetings to gather feedback on the pilot program, “Woodbury Trash Reduction Pilot Town Hall Session #1,” will be held Monday, April 10, at 6:30 p.m. at the Woodbury Senior Center (281 Main Street, Woodbury).

NVCOG reports Ansonia launched its pilot program December 5, 2022, with more than 7,000 households given the tools to participate. Ansonia residents also have green and orange bags, but they have curbside pickup, so they put both bags in their trash bin, and the bags are sorted later.

Ansonia’s outreach efforts included a number of public events and digital outreach. The city used grant funds to purchase hundreds of table-top compost bins to be given free to residents and to purchase dozens of environmental children’s books for Ansonia Public Library and local elementary schools.

Seymour, NVCOG reports, launched its program February 13, 2023, with about 1,000 households on the Monday trash pickup route being given the tools to participate. Outreach efforts there were similar to those in Woodbury and Ansonia, and grant funds there also purchased table-top compost bins for residents.

In Southbury, an all-volunteer group, Sustainable Southbury is “working to transform Southbury into a green sustainable community.” One of the group’s six initiatives is to reduce waste in its food system and consumer products, increase organic composting, and improve recycling.

Its food scrap pilot program works with local food businesses and started with two businesses, the 1850 House at Silo Point Country Club and Nardelli’s Grinder Shop at Union Square. Senor Pancho’s in Southbury has now joined the program.

Businesses place food scraps in special collection bins for pickup every week by food scrap hauler Curbside Compost. This keeps messy food waste out of their regular trash bins and may lower their trash costs. It also eliminates food waste from the trash stream where it is either burned, which adds to polluted air or buried, creating methane gas which contributes to greenhouse gasses.

Curbside Compost delivers the vegetable, meat and dairy food waste to commercial composters, and the end result is a rich compost that is sold to farms and residents to enrich farmland and gardens.

Any Southbury food-based business that is interested in taking advantage of the Sustainable Southbury Food Scraps Commercial Recycling Program should contact Chuck Litty at clitty@sustainablesouthbury.org. More information on the group can be found on its website, www.sustainablesouthbury.org.