Cambridge to Roll Out Curbside Composting City-Wide Next Year

CAMBRIDGE, MA - It's been more than three years since the City of Cambridge started a pilot program to collect food scraps for composting. Now, what started with a few homes in Cambridge is now spreading citywide starting in Spring.

Currently, there are 600 participating households which have collected over 170,000 pounds of food scraps.

Cambridge Recycling Director Mike Orr said the program will roll out to every home in Cambridge in April of 2018.

(Subscribe to Cambridge Patch for more local news and real-time alerts.)

Next year, Orr said, all 20,000 households in Cambridge will recieve a small green bin for composting. All one to 12 unit buildings in Cambridge will also have access to curbside composting.

"That would divert about 2,000 tons of trash per year," he said. "Which equates to about seven or eight tons a day."

Orr said the project would help protect the climate by reducing potent greenhouse gas emissions at landfills. The material will then be made into rich compost by Rocky Hill Farm in Saugus.

Orr said the curbside compost collection could help the City control trash costs and meet its goals to reduce trash 30% by 2020 and 80% less by 2050.

During the pilot, funded in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, the program maintained a satisfaction rate of 95%.

A specific area of the Monday collection route in North Cambridge was selected for the pilot because of its mix of housing and lack of access to existing food scrap drop off sites in 2012, Orr said.

The City ended up signing up 554 households by the first collection day of the compost pilot, April 7, 2014.

"We have a $1 million appropriation set aside by City Council, so next April keep an eye out for your new compost container." Orr said.

For more information on composting in Cambridge, visit the recycling page here.

Courtesy Photo / City of Cambridge Public Works