Southfield adopts food-waste elimination study, approves multifamily pilot

Southfield City Council on Feb. 10 adopted a citywide Food Waste Elimination Study and authorized a six‑month pilot program targeting multifamily housing, city staff said.

The study, presented by Suzanne Youssef, the city’s sustainability planner, was produced with grant funding from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) and technical assistance from the nonprofit Make Food Not Waste and consultants from Giffels Webster. Youssef told the council the plan is intended to feed Southfield’s broader Sustainable Southfield initiative and the city’s materials-management goals.

The study lays out sector-by-sector strategies for residential, commercial, institutional and municipal food waste, Youssef said, and modeled a theoretical scenario to achieve “zero food waste” with an estimated cost of roughly $4.7 million in the study’s maximum implementation scenario. She emphasized the cost figure was a planning scenario and that the study breaks down which actors would be responsible for various costs in the appendices.

“Food waste is a critical issue for the climate crisis,” Youssef said. “Forty-six percent of food waste in Southfield is made by the residential sector. The plan will be available on our Sustainable Southfield website.”

Council approved a pilot project funded by a NextCycle Michigan circular-economy grant to test outdoor compost collection bins and indoor food-recycling caddies at multifamily properties. Youssef said the pilot would run about six months and expects roughly 1,000 residents to participate; compost haulers and a nonprofit partner would handle monitoring and collection if the pilot proceeds. She also said the project team delayed the study’s completion after acquisition-related data gaps while Priority Waste/ GFL reorganized, and completed the project in December 2024.

The pilot and study were included in the council’s consent agenda and were approved without separate roll-call votes. The consent agenda also included a request to authorize participation and implementation of the study and a separate item to accept the study itself.

Council members asked staff to work with neighborhood associations, school officials and Priority Waste to refine operational details if curbside collection is pursued. On funding, Youssef noted Make Food Not Waste would play a lead role in identifying grants and partners and that the city’s role would be supportive in many strategies.

The council vote to adopt the study and permit the pilot completes the council’s requested next step to move from planning to testing implementation; Youssef said the full sustainability action plan that incorporates the study is expected later in the year.

The city clerk recorded the adoption as part of the consent agenda and the council’s motion carried.