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Committee discusses county solid-waste planning, food-waste pilots and potential commercial composting facility
Summary
Members heard updates about a county household hazardous-waste event, the county's five-year solid-waste plan that includes composting, and local pilots and proposals for food-waste drop-offs and a commercial composting facility near the landfill.
The Sustainable BC Committee on April 28 discussed county solid-waste planning, community food-waste pilot programs and the prospect of a commercial composting facility in Calhoun County.
Patty Hochmel, an environmental department employee for the City of Battle Creek, advised the committee that the county is holding a household hazardous-waste and electronics event at Bailey Park and that the event was open until 5:30 p.m. on the day of the meeting. She said county staff — led by Sarah Lundy — are assembling baseline data on recycling and solid-waste rates as part of a five-year municipal solid-waste plan and that composting is part of that planning process. “It's for a 5 year term. And so they're trying to look at ways to they're trying to get kind of baseline data on recycling rates and solid waste rates and and just data gathering right now,” Hochmel said.
Committee members discussed a possible community food-waste drop-off pilot. Hochmel said staff have been investigating Portage’s pilot with My Green Michigan and that a church had offered parking-lot space for a possible drop-off to avoid putting bins in heavily public locations. Dee Chauvin and others emphasized contamination-control and clear signage for any garlic-mustard or food-waste drop-offs.
Hochmel also told the committee that there is discussion about bringing a commercial-scale composting facility near the county landfill; she said the facility would be able to handle materials that backyard compost sites cannot process, such as compostable serviceware, and that the facility would resell composted material. She did not provide a date or final operator for the facility. Committee members asked staff to follow up with county contacts and to share meeting dates for the solid-waste planning process when available.
The committee did not take formal votes on these items; staff said they would report additional details to the committee in future meetings.
