Eugene, Oregon, announces food waste collection

The Love Food Not Waste program will be a free, voluntary service available to anyone in the test neighborhoods. Participants must deposit their food waste in yard debris collection containers, which will be collected every other week. The city will provide 2-gallon plastic kitchen pails to empty scraps into the bins. 

 

“We are beginning by allowing all food scraps,” Michael Wisth, city waste prevention and green building analyst, told the newspaper. “So anything you can eat could end up in the food waste containers.”

 

The food waste will be sent to Rexius Eugene, where it will be processed into compost and sold by local home and garden stores, the article says.  

 

“By composting, we can effectively end the conversion of [food scraps] to methane gas, which is a volatile greenhouse gas,” Wisth said. “Composting also keeps a valuable recyclable material out of the landfill.” 

 

An estimated $200,000 per year is expected to be spent on the program over the next two years. The first phase will begin in September in the College Hill and Friendly area neighborhoods. North Eugene collection will begin in December, followed by west Eugene in March and southeast Eugene in June 2017.