USDA grant helps Wyoming county lower composting costs

With a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), restaurants, grocery stores and schools in Teton County, Wyoming, can secure a 50 percent discount on their monthly composting fees through May 2026.

Currently, as reported by KHOL, composting food waste costs between $65 and $260 per month for commercial operators, depending on the size and amount of waste. By subsidizing those costs, county officials hope to ease the financial burden and expand participation in the program.

“This is a program that’s an economy of scale,” Becky Kiefer, director of Teton County Integrated Solid Waste and Recycling, tells KHOL. “The more food producers we can get to participate in the commercial curb-to-compost program, the cheaper it gets over time.”

The program started with a pilot in 2017, Kiefer says, in partnership with Grand Teton National Park and the concessionaires like Grand Teton Lodge Co. and Signal Mountain Lodge. It was funded by Subaru’s Zero Landfill Initiative.

Currently, only 10 local entities participate in the compost program, but Kiefer hopes the discount will encourage that number to grow to at least 50 over the next year. Kiefer named the Ammangani, Teton Science School and Whole Foods Market as participants.

The county also has a goal of diverting 60 percent of waste from the landfill by 2030, KHOL reports.

Kiefer said the county originally applied for the USDA grant to fund a machine that would help separate food waste from noncompostable material. However, the department approved a shift in priorities to support direct programming instead.

“In an atmosphere where federal grants are making more headlines for being cut, it’s a win for the community,” Kiefer said. “We are able to move forward with all of the components of our grant application that will benefit the commercial businesses in our community to reduce food waste. So, we feel really fortunate.”