Mayor, State: ​$3.3 M Grant Award For Compost, Food Diversion Facility

NEW HAVEN, CT — Thursday Mayor Justin Elicker and state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Katie Dykes are set to announce a $3.3 million state grant for New Haven to build a new composting and food scrap diversion facility to support plans for the launch of citywide curbside composting.

According to the Mayor's office, the grant is one of nine, $15 million statewide, as part of the agency's Materials Management Infrastructure Grant Program. The endeavor "aims to support municipalities and regional organizations to develop waste management infrastructure and address waste disposal challenges."

In New Haven, the funding will support the building of a new co-collection facility at the New Haven Transfer Station, "providing the physical infrastructure needed to support a citywide residential curbside composting and food scrap diversion program," the Mayor said.

Once the facility is built, residents will be educated on composting, disposing of their food scraps in color-coded bags to be collected as part of their weekly refuse and recycling pickup, it's noted in a news release. The food scrap bags would then be sorted at the facility and sent to be processed into compost and biogas.

The City says food scraps make up 20 to 25 percent of the waste stream, and diverting food scraps from the waste stream has several environmental benefits, including improving air quality, reducing carbon-polluting methane gas, and producing compost to enrich soil.