Salisbury/Sharon Transfer Station Launches Food Scrap Composting Pilot
The Salisbury/Sharon CT Transfer Station, managed by Brian Bartram, Transfer Station Manager and NRRA Board of Trustees member, recently launched a food scrap composting pilot program on the 1st of May. This program will now allow up to 120 households in Salisbury/Sharon to sign up for the food scrap composting pilot, with 115 households currently signed up. This pilot program will be for a length of 5 months.
These food scraps will be brought to Curbside Compost in Ridgefield, CT and turned into compost. This includes hard to compost items such as meat and dairy; and don’t forget your napkins, paper towels, and newspaper (these are great to make the compost, compost)! Residents simply collect their scraps in a compostable bag and bring them to the brown totes at the Salisbury/Sharon transfer station.
The Head of the Salisbury Transfer Station Advisory Committee, Barbara Bettigole, and Brian Bartram worked together to get this program off the ground. This started with reaching out to communities that are currently providing composting services to residents, which gave Salisbury/Sharon advice on how to start this pilot. They also asked for the ever-important town support from both selectmen and residents in the Salisbury and Sharon communities. Check out this Salisbury/Sharon video for more information about how they got up and running.
Composting is a great way to divert food waste from your municipal solid waste and recycles food scraps to capture this resource. This process develops a valuable product as a result and can be used to benefit agriculture. As of 2018, nearly 22% of waste generated was food scraps (see chart below). Participation in composting programs can reduce landfill usage and have positive impacts for future generations and your community!
Thank you to the Salisbury/Sharon transfer station and other communities working to provide this resource, leading the way in resource recycling efforts! With model programs such as these, now is a great time to consider a similar program in your community.
If you would like to learn more about composting food scraps, check out NRRA’s Resource Library.
