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Commission hears plan to expand food-scrap collection and pilot composting at South School
Summary
Planet New Canaan will underwrite extra pickups so the town can move food-scrap collections to twice weekly; the commission also heard that South School will pilot a compost program as Connecticut’s commercial-organics law takes effect.
The New Canaan Conservation Commission on Feb. 13 heard updates on food-scrap collection and a plan to expand municipal organics pickup to twice weekly to meet rising demand.
Commissioners said the town currently collects about 1,500 pounds of food scraps per week at the transfer station and is hitting capacity. Planet New Canaan has agreed to pay the difference in tipping or extra pickup costs to move to two collections per week. Planet New Canaan also approved a pilot program to bring food-scrap composting to South School.
Commissioners discussed Connecticut’s commercial organics law requiring certain generators within a defined radius of a composting facility to separate and send food scraps for composting. A speaker recited the statute’s threshold—26 tons per year for institutions—and noted the law’s July 1 effective date for schools meeting the threshold. Commissioners said enforcement mechanisms and some operational details remain unclear; for example, municipal hauler billing is based on pickups and dumpster counts rather than weight, so realizing hauling-cost reductions from diverting organics will require further negotiation with the town’s contractor, Oak Ridge.
Commissioners asked staff and Planet New Canaan to seek weight and hauling metrics from schools and large food generators and to monitor the South School pilot. The commission indicated it would bring the organics-law implications to a future meeting for further direction, including discussing steps Tiger (town operations) should take.
