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County pilots household food-waste drop-offs and explores school composting
Summary
Staff described a new pilot food-waste collection at four county centers and discussed earlier, limited school compost pilots; speakers said diverting food is among the highest-impact waste changes because it reduces methane generation in landfills.
Kevin Lindley described a recently funded food-waste pilot that places household food-waste drop-off bins at four county collection centers and sends materials to a regional composting facility. "We had 4 of our collection centers we have bins that you can bring food waste you collected at your house and bring in," he said, noting the program came together with a state grant to pilot diversion and collect program data.
During Q&A commissioners asked whether the pilot could be expanded to restaurants or schools. Lindley said the current grant funded resident-focused collection only, but the department has experimented with small school pilots and learned logistic constraints: food distribution systems, prepackaged foods and the need for staff or volunteers to sort and manage school food waste make scaling in schools more complex without dedicated funding. Staff recommended pairing school solutions with funding for staffing or vendor pickup to make school composting viable.
