Testing the Waters for Opt-In Curbside Kitchen Scrap Collection

The sustainable practice of composting organics is becoming more and more mainstream with curbside collection being provided by some municipal trash programs and private haulers.

The Swampscott Recycling Task Force would like to test the waters to see if there’s an interest in a voluntary curbside kitchen scrap collection.

Here’s one scenario.

Black Earth Hauler, a private hauler, who presently services Gloucester, Rockport, Essex, Ipswich, Newburyport, Manchester, Beverly, Salem, Marblehead, Hamilton and Wenham, provides weekly collection of food waste/compostables for residences, businesses and institutions.  The organic material* is then delivered to a farm in Hamilton where it is composted into a nutrient-rich, natural soil amendment and used by local farmers, growers and gardeners.

This is a voluntary program and those opting-in pay to participate. The cost per household is either $4 per week or $200 per year. Options are available for biweekly yard waste pickup and costs vary for businesses and institutions. The billing takes place between Black Earth and the customer, not the Town.

Basic equipment such as kitchen compost buckets with carbon filters, pails with tight fitting lids and biodegradable liners which can be sealed to reduce odors is readily available.

Ten customers, in total, are needed participate in a collection program with Black Earth. If you (resident, business or institution) are interested, please contact Swampscottrecycles@gmail.com.

If there’s an interest, the the Recycling Task Force will arrange a meeting with the hauler, interested parties and officials.

*fruit and vegetable scraps, paper towels and napkins, meat and dairy scraps, coffee grounds and tea bags and anything else designed to be compostable.

P.S. The benefits of composting are far reaching. It is an age-old practice which returns valuable and natural nutrients to the soil and creates a sustainable food cycle versus sending organics down the drain, to landfills or incinerators. Composting reduces methane gas and slurry produced at landfills. Also, by removing these volume-dense materials from the trash, tipping fees for trash disposal are curtailed.

Massachusetts has adopted new waste ban policies designed to divert nearly a third of the 1.4 million tons of organics generated each year by institutions and businesses from the waste stream. This means composting trends and infrastructure support are in full swing.