W4.1 Residential composting
Expand residential programs for composting and recycling food waste.
Prohibit organics in landfill pickup bins
Prohibit food waste, compostable paper, yard waste and recyclables in garbage (ie landfill) bins, as Seattle does. Require that food waste and yard waste go into organic bins, and study the costs and benefits of investing in an anaerobic digester for local organics.
The Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC), with support from the Center for EcoTechnology (CET), recently did a study of existing and proposed organic waste bans, studying the policies as well as the experiences of states and localities in implementing and enforcing them.
Backyard composting
Olympia has a webpage with materials to support backyard composting; so do the Thurston County Master Gardeners’ program, and the City of Seattle.
School composting
Lakes Elementary’s school composting program handles over 10 tons of food a year. Evergreen’s Organic Farm has a a closed-tunnel composting facility that processes food waste from the cafeteria. LifeLab has a resource page about starting school composting programs.