KINGSTON – The City of Kingston is exploring ways to divert food waste by composting and is conducting a feasibility study on composting collection options to handle waste produced at municipal buildings, facilities, small businesses and residences.
The study will explore how removing food scraps and food waste from the waste stream could potentially keep municipal costs down while providing a beneficial service to the city’s residents and businesses. Reducing food waste sent to landfills can save hundreds of thousands of dollars and decreasing the number of dump truck trips to landfills reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
A city-wide survey will help determine if the financial benefits from implementing a public composting program would exceed the start-up and operating costs, and if so, the city will seek to move forward.
City officials said the composting survey will gauge the current levels of food waste diversion already in practice and will measure the interest and willingness of the community to implement city-scale food waste composting. The City currently collects yard waste, diverting it from landfills.
The Composting Survey is online.
Officials said the survey is one piece of a two-year study evaluating the use of many composting methods and the feasibility. Once the study is complete, the Kingston Organics Diversion Plan will propose a methodology for rolling out food waste diversion.
The Kingston Organics Diversion Plan project is funded by the state Department of Environmental Conservation and involves multiple partners including the City of Kingston Office of Sustainability; Kingston’s Conservation Advisory Council, the Climate Smart Kingston Commission, UCRRA, the Ulster County Department of the Environment, and the Hudson Valley Regional Council.
