Austin Resource Recovery began the Curbside Organics Collection Pilot Dec. 31 by providing 7,900 households with a green organics cart and a food scrap collector that can be used indoors to gather leftovers before placing them in the green cart. The green organics cart can be used to collect organic materials like:
Food scraps: cooked or raw meat, poultry and seafood (including bones), cheese, dairy products, fruits, coffee grounds, spoiled food, pasta, grains, bread, tea bags and candy
Food-soiled paper: paper bags, napkins, towels, plates, cups, containers and take-out boxes, pizza boxes, coffee filters, milk cartons and tissues
Yard trimmings: grass clippings, straw, branches, small tree limbs, tree roots, flowers, leaves, soil and plants
Other: shredded paper (in paper bags), cotton balls, dryer lint, wooden objects (ex. chopsticks) and sawdust (in paper bags)
Since 1989, Austin Resource Recovery has collaborated with Austin Water Utility to design a service that collects yard trimmings at the curb and turns it into a nutrient-rich and restorative soil known as Dillo Dirt.
With the Curbside Organics Collection Pilot service, Austin Resource Recovery can use the collected organic material to create a nutrient-rich compost, mulch and garden soils particularly constructed for Central Texas.
“Composting is nature’s way of recycling. Rather than sending your food scraps and lawn clippings to the landfill, you can compost them to create a nutrient rich fertilizer for your garden or lawn. Composting allows you to return badly needed organic matter to your soil. In this way, we participate in nature’s cycle and cut down on the amount of trash going into burgeoning landfills. And, unlike some fertilizers, compost will not run off your yard and pollute Austin’s creeks and waterways.” (austintexas.gov)
The city is conducting this pilot program in hopes of reducing the amount of compostable materials in landfills and to greater encourage the Zero Waste program. The Zero Waste goal is to decrease the bulk of waste sent to landfills by 90 percent by the year 2040.
“Zero Waste is a philosophy that takes a step past recycling to focus primarily on reducing waste and reusing products and then recycling and composting the rest. Zero Waste recognizes that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure, and everything is a resource for something or someone else.” (austintexas.gov).
The Curbside Organics Collection Pilot may also help reduce residents’ utility bill. If the participants are placing their food scraps and food-soiled paper in their green cart, they will most likely have less trash to throw away each week. With this said, there may be a possibility that the resident can downsize to a smaller, less expensive trash cart and save money on their monthly utility bill.
The pilot will officially end in December 2013. However, curbside organics collection will remain a permanent weekly collection service for all pilot households going forward. Depending on how well the pilot goes by January 2014, there may be an expansion of households allowed to participate in the Curbside Organics Collection Program.
For more information about the Curbside Organics Collection Pilot, how to’s and what not’s and other Austin Resource Recovery programs/services you can go to http://austintexas.gov/austincomposts and http://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Trash_and_Recycling/organics_pilot/OrganicsPilot_HowToGuide_Web.pdf.
