Subcommittee hears compost pilot serves 750 households at ~$270,000/year; staff seeking $275,000 budget modification pending feasibility study

Jen Harmon, a department staff member responsible for education and related programs, updated the Solid Waste Subcommittee on the curbside compost pilot. Harmon said the pilot began around 2023, currently includes about 750 participating households and costs roughly $270,000 per year to operate.

Harmon told committee members that the pilot was previously funded by an initial mechanism but budget modifications requested in prior years were not approved and that grant applications to support expansion were unsuccessful. To sustain the existing pilot, staff submitted a budget modification of $275,000 (the same figure requested in a prior year) to cover current operations. Harmon also said the department is conducting a feasibility study to assess longer‑term options for organics collection and to inform any recommendation about how widely and how quickly to expand the program.

Committee members asked whether some of the department’s reported operational savings (staff had cited roughly $5.58 million in cumulative savings) could be used for compost expansion. Harmon and other staff responded that those savings are spread over several insourcing actions and operational needs; the department prefers to await the feasibility study and a clear plan before allocating savings to expand the pilot. No formal budget decision was made at the meeting.