Upper Valley Waste Management Agency Begins Curbside Food Composting Program
(NAPA COUNTY, CA) – Beginning immediately, up valley residents with service from Upper Valley Disposal & Recycling (UVD&R) can put all food and food-soiled paper in the green compost cart… it’s not just for yard waste anymore!
To help residents begin composting, UVD&R will provide all residential customers with a kitchen compost pail starting in July. The pails will be delivered over the next few months with pick up options available as well. There is no need to wait for the pail; all food and food-soiled paper can go in the green cart right away.
What can be composted? Lots of Items: all food, including meat and bones, dairy, bread, fruit and vegetables will be accepted. Food-stained pizza boxes, paper towels, napkins, coffee grounds, paper coffee filters and tea bags can also be included. Compostable material typically makes up one third of what households throw away. When you add other compostable items such as paper napkins and coffee grounds, it’s easy to see how composting will significantly reduce what we send to the landfill.
Residents should place their green compost carts out for weekly pickup on their regular collection day. The collected food, food soiled paper and yard waste material will go to Upper Valley Disposal & Recycling’s compost facility, where it is all turned into compost available for purchase for home gardens, landscaping, and agricultural uses.
How will curbside food composting make a difference? The average up valley resident generates 4.5 pounds of trash per day. Of that 4.5 pounds, approximately one third
is compostable organic material. If all UVD&R household customers composted, that would mean 548 pounds of organic material per person annually would no longer be wasted in landfills. That would be about 11,000 TONS per year in total!
When organic materials end up in landfills, they generate methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. UVD&R’s compost facility instead turns this valuable material into organic compost. When compost is used in landscape and agriculture it builds soil nutrients, conserves water, and reduces the need for fertilizers.
“Keeping organics out of our trash and recycling them into our green waste is a great way for each of us to take action on climate change” said Margie Mohler, Upper Valley Waste Management Agency Board Chair.
Learn more about the new curbside food composting program at www.countyofnapa.org/recycling or www.uvds.com