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How can you reduce trash odors, reduce the town’s costs to dispose of trash, and improve the environment? Compost using the green cans at the Recycling Center.
We generate an amazing amount of waste from food scraps and food that has passed its sell-by date. These materials can be composted, but too many of us just mix them with regular trash.
Experts say that approximately 40% of our trash is compostable. Here in Harpswell, we have a composting program through the organization Garbage to Gardens. Our current composting volume is estimated to be only 6% of our trash. This means there is significant room for improvement.
Importantly, the cost of recycling food waste into compost is far less than the cost to dispose of recycling or trash.
Remembering what is compostable is easy: “If it grows, it goes.”
I have found that if you establish a method for storing your food waste for composting, you will have less odor from your trash cans. If you place compostable bags in a separate, kitchen-sized trash can with a lid, then put that trash can near where you prepare meals, you can simply scrape compostable material directly into the bag.
When you have filled a third or half of the bag, twist the top of the bag, tie it with a simple knot, and take it outside to a separate trash can with a lid for your next trip to the Recycling Center and Transfer Station.
At the Recycling Center, you can simply deposit the green, compostable bag in one of the green cans next to the trash and recycling hoppers.
I have discovered that the accumulated compost is surprisingly heavy compared to the remaining trash. This results in three benefits: It saves money, through lower costs for the town; it creates useful material for gardeners and farmers, which is available to residents; and it creates less methane and carbon dioxide than depositing the waste in a landfill.
So remember: “If it grows, it goes” into the compost!
