County Enhances Food Compost Effort
November 15, 2024
This month, Montgomery County launched the latest phase of its initiative to reduce food waste by encouraging businesses and residents to compost instead of discarding food scraps in the trash. (See a short video later in this article.)
Food scraps account for about one-quarter of the county's total trash volume. In 2023, the county estimates that approximately 90,000 tons of food waste ended up in the trash, most of which was incinerated at the county's facility in Dickerson.
Composting food scraps is an environmentally beneficial practice (and thus, a no-brainer), but it requires significant changes in behavior for households and businesses, as well as adaptations to the county’s waste management systems. The county has been running a pilot composting program for several years and now plans to increase participation and enhance its infrastructure.
Part of this effort includes allowing residents to “recycle” food scraps at the curbside, just as they do with glass, plastic, paper, and cardboard. The collected scraps would be transported to a central location, likely the Dickerson yard trim compost facility.
In the 1990s, legal agreements reached between SCA and the county (following multiple lawsuits) granted SCA oversight of the compost facility. Recently, the county has requested SCA's permission to expand this facility to handle food scraps. Initial work to increase the facility’s capacity is proposed to begin in 2025, with food scraps expected to start being delivered in late 2026 or early 2027. The food scraps would be combined with existing yard trim (currently about 58,000 tons annually) to create a nutrient-rich soil additive, enhancing Leafgro, the county’s popular commercial product made from leaves and yard trim.
SCA has indicated it would support the expansion of food scrap composting at the Dickerson facility, provided there is a binding commitment from the county to close the incinerator on a specific future date.
Watch a short YouTube video of the county’s recent ceremony on the composting initiative below.