Brookings to pilot yearlong food‑waste composting program with four drop‑off sites

Brookings will run a yearlong pilot food‑waste composting program in 2025–26 after the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources selected the city as a test site.

The city’s landfill director, identified in the meeting as Charlie, said the pilot is a feasibility study that will evaluate local infrastructure and public interest and help the state consider future permitting and funding approaches. “They are doing it as a feasibility study,” Charlie said.

Under the pilot, residents will collect food scraps at home and bring them to one of four drop‑off sites: the street department, the east fire station, the south fire station and the landfill. The city will supply gray 95‑gallon containers at the sites and will provide free two‑and‑a‑half‑gallon compostable bags and promotional two‑gallon buckets at the farmers market on October 4 and October 18; additional buckets will be for sale at the landfill office for $10 each. The director said the city initially ordered about 250 buckets to distribute.

Collected material will be transported weekly to the Citizens Campus, where staff will keep the loads in a separate area for mixing and operational monitoring. The city will track moisture and temperature and perform lab testing as part of the pilot. Charlie described operational procedures: staff will “track the loads coming in, mix the compost, test it. We look for moisture. We look for temperature.”

The pilot is designed to reduce methane generation in landfills and extend landfill life by removing food scraps, the director said. He also noted potential downstream benefits if the pilot scales up: “There’s some stipulations with the state on what we can do with it…if this takes off on a community level, of bringing in SDSU” or other partners, he said.

City and council members asked several operational questions at the meeting. Council Member Tiltonburn asked whether the compost will be treated and whether there is an ideal participation level; the director said treatment steps would follow state guidelines and that the city does not yet have a numeric participation target. He said the state has waived certain permitting requirements for the pilot year but that permanent implementation would require compliance with existing regulations.

Council members also asked about program scale and logistics. The city will provide free replacement compost bags at the drop‑off stands and expects to adjust operations based on participation. Officials said the city will reevaluate the pilot at the end of the year and decide whether to expand, alter or end the program.

The pilot will also supply data for the state’s broader effort to frame composting policies, permit approaches and funding strategies. The landfill director said the program will help the state determine “what else they can do to kind of support the needs of the community.”

The council’s discussion emphasized public education and future possibilities: one council member noted the pilot could be a step toward a local anaerobic digestion system if feedstocks and end‑product uses justify it. The director and other staff said they will monitor participation and operational performance and will report back to the council at the end of the pilot year.