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Seattle now has curbside composting
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Seattle now has curbside composting. Single family homes can now dramatically reduce what goes into landfills since the city began requring that everyone subscribe to the yard waste service and dramatically enhanced that service. New agreements with recyclers now means that in Seattle we can collect kitchen scraps, paper plates and even paper towels and napkins and toss them into the yard waste bin. That material is collected weekly and turned into compost. Material that can now be put in the yard waste bin includes coffee grounds, vegetable trimmings, meat, fish, and dairy products. The materials that can be recycled have been increased as well.
The company that turns this waste into silky soft, absorbent humus, ready for the garden is Cedar Grove Composting, a family owned business with 250 employees that has roots in the recycling industry going back to 1938. They have been growing with the times and their website now boasts that "Since 1989, Cedar Grove Composting has diverted over 4 million tons of organic material from landfills, preventing 3.72 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions- the equivalent of removing approximately 6
70,000 cars from the road." They have become the largest single dedicated yard waste composting facility in the United States.
More than 100,000 tons of food and yard waste from Seattle households and businesses was turned into garden products in 2008. Food waste makes up one-third of the material that Seattle residents send to the landfill. I have always wanted to compost, but could never justify the time and effort, so this turn of events has been welcomed. The dramatic decrease in what goes into my garbage can has been amazing and knowing that this waste will be turned into soil rather than buried is fantastic.
For more information:
** City of Seattle Recycling Programs
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See Jackie's other stories:
Organic food business is booming.
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