Beaufort County announced a pilot composting program that will accept household food scraps at designated drop-off bins, county officials said. The program aims to reduce landfill waste and turn food scraps into soil amendment for local use.

A county spokesperson outlined participation steps: residents should collect food scraps in a sealed kitchen container, take an online quiz to learn the program rules and receive an access code, then bring their sealed container to the site, unlock the bin, and deposit the scraps. The broadcast listed typical acceptable items as fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, eggshells and paper napkins and said participants should avoid raw meat, plastic and produce stickers. "Let's turn food waste into something good," the speaker said.

The county encouraged residents to follow program updates on official social pages and watch an accompanying training video that the broadcast said is posted to the county's YouTube channel. Program organizers said the pilot is designed to enrich local soil and reduce landfill volumes; specific pilot locations, hours and the length of the pilot were not specified in the broadcast.

Next steps: residents interested in participating were directed to the county's compost information page and social media for details on how to take the quiz and where to drop off materials.