COG updates: household hazardous waste events move to new vendor; regional food-waste composting expanding

Council staff updated members on solid-waste programming including household hazardous waste (HHW) events and food-waste/compost initiatives.

HHW events: Staff reported a new contract with MXI to run HHW collections, with the next event scheduled for June 21 at the Torrington/Canaan Falls (speaker used both names) facility. The COG will use online registration (Eventbrite-style) to issue tickets and reduce phone workload. Staff said MXI has received positive reviews and that flyers and online registration links should be available in early May. Participants discussed past long lines at events (one site experienced queues over one hour when inbound traffic arrived before the contractor was ready) and agreed on operational fixes: ensure contractor readiness, use two vehicle lanes initially and avoid encouraging early arrivals in publicity.

Food-waste/composting: Members described a regional composting pilot that accepts residential food waste at a processing machine on-site and returns finished compost to community gardens and public spaces. The discussion noted that equipment, transport and drop-off logistics raise program costs and require infrastructure changes (e.g., vehicle handling and drop-off hours for weekenders). One town reported diverting 23 tons of food waste year-to-date and increasing collection tonnage; the speaker said the program reduces landfill volumes and benefits community gardens.

Staff said the COG will circulate event dates to recycling coordinators, road supervisors and town staff and will provide more details on MXI’s registration and operational plan when available.