Jason raises the issue of encouraging his City to
promote home composting. He plans to write the
City and ask that they promote an existing composting
class that is offered through one of the local junior
colleges.
We do an interesting thing in our community. The City
Council negotiated a revision in our contract with
the trash collecting company. The plan was for the City
to reduce the volume of trash by a certain percent and
to do this through education. The less trash, the lower
the cost of trash pick-up per ton.
The City Department of Recreation offers composting
classes. We are also in the process of writing material
for a City web page where we will teach and promote
home composting.
The City and the trash collecting company share the
expense of the "green" trash cans which are used solely
for garden wastes, the collected material is then
composted by the trash collecting company and sold at
a profit.
We have had something like a 25% reduction in trash
volume in about two years. The fees charged by the
trash collecting company have dropped not only in
terms of tons of pick-up but also the rate of per
ton pick-up as well. I don't know the specific figures on
the dollar savings to the City but I do know that the
program is cost effective and helps the environment at
the same time. Reducing our dependence on landfill and
saving money is a win-win situation.
The thing that makes the program work so well is that
the cost of space in the landfill is becoming increasingly
expensive as urban sprawl continues.