Somerville officials restart push for school composting after earlier pilots stalled

Christine Blaise, director of the mayor—s Office of Sustainability and Environment, told the joint committee that Somerville ran cafeteria composting pilots in 2018 and 2019 and later tried a short kitchen organics pilot that did not perform as well.

"That analysis also determined that additional personnel and resources would be required to maintain and expand the program," Blaise said, explaining that staff and logistical limits and the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted plans to expand the program.

Blaise said the city recently launched a curbside composting pilot and had 169 sign-ups in the first week. The city also holds more than $100,000 approved through participatory budgeting to site community food-waste drop-off locations.

Councilors and school committee members pressed on logistics and costs. Councilor Jesse Klingen said his primary concern remained rodents: "from my perspective, as far as composting goes, it's mostly about rats." Several members asked whether simpler steps could be tried—such as removing food from trays and bringing it to DPW bins—but staff said the issue is more complex because cafeteria-level ("front of house") and kitchen-level ("back of house") waste require different operations, staffing and pickup schedules.

School staff described earlier operational challenges: inconsistent pickup of back-of-house containers and the training and staffing needed to manage front-of-house collection and reduce contamination. Lauren Mancini, director of food services, told the committee that back-of-house waste volumes can be limited by menu reuse (for example turning leftover chicken into another dish), whereas front-of-house trays produce more food waste and typically need more staff support.

Several committee members urged the administration to cost out a range of options so that the district and council can consider funding in the budget process. Dr. Phillips asked the district to work with finance to "cost out what it would take to seriously pilot a compost" and what districtwide implementation would require.

Blaise said the city is pursuing synergies between school programs, the new curbside pilot and participatory-budgeting drop-off sites, is conducting market research with neighboring cities, and expects to present options that account for rodent mitigation, pickup frequency and contamination-management. She said staff hope the pilot work will allow the city and schools to prepare ahead of upcoming state regulations on commercial food waste.