With garbage disposal tip fees rising and the environmental impact of landfilled food waste becoming more apparent, municipalities are left to rely on conscientious residents, restaurant owners, caterers, school administrators, and facility managers to heed the call for diverting food waste from garbage. The State of Connecticut, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and countless nonprofits, not to mention the Salisbury/Sharon Transfer Station Recycling Advisory Committee (TRAC), are encouraging all food-waste-generators — from residents to large facilities and institutions — to join this well-proven strategy for reducing the volume of garbage being sent out of state to landfills or to one of the few remaining waste-to-energy plants in Connecticut.
Presently, nearly 400 residents in Salisbury and Sharon have participated in the Food Waste Drop-Off Program at the Transfer Station. The food waste is transported by a hired hauler to a commercial composting facility in New Milford. Unfortunately, the Transfer Station is not set up to receive large quantities of food waste, though clearly larger quantities of diverted food waste will reduce the volume of garbage significantly, and consequently the cost of its disposal.
With a successful residential program underway, the next and the most impactful step is to convince restaurants, caterers, and other food-waste generators to engage in a trial of food waste separation and/or to engage in conversation with The Center for EcoTechnology (CET), a nonprofit funded by the EPA and CT DEEP, to get individualized advice about logistics and strategies.
It is worth noting the courageous few who have stepped forward to run food waste separation trials: Black Rabbit in Salisbury, Le Gamin in Sharon, and the Salisbury Senior Program at the Grove. At Noble Horizons, Joanne Taber has spearheaded the effort to get Cottage residents to separate food waste. The Salisbury School already diverts its food waste with help from students in the Community Service program. And The White Hart and the Sharon Health Center have engaged in conversation with CET as a preliminary step.
Some resourceful approaches can help restaurants, schools, and other facilities get started with food-waste diversion. For restaurants, volunteers from a loyal customer base might work, and for others some creative staffing and self-hauling might work.
Anticipating that some grants or other funding will come through later this year, the goal down the line is for the Transfer Station to incentivize food-waste separation across the board.
For now, each food-waste-generating entity should analyze and adjust to be ready to hire a food waste hauler or jump into a hauling scheme promoted by the towns.
The more the Transfer Station and TRAC know about your interest, your efforts, and your challenges, the better prepared we will be to develop a tenable strategy. Please reach out to express interest, ask questions, and share data at foodwastepilot@gmail.com.
Barbara Bettigole is chair of the Salisbury/Sharon Transfer Station Recycling Advisory Committee.
Trial food waste efforts underway in Salisbury and Sharon