Palo Alto's Residential Food Scraps Composting Collection Starts July 1!

From the City of Palo Alto:

Beginning July 1, residents can put all of their food scraps and soiled paper directly into their green cart along with yard trimmings. Residents will receive a kitchen bucket to store a few days’ worth of food scraps and soiled paper in their house beforedepositing it in their green cart. The City’s solid waste collection contractor, GreenWaste of Palo Alto, will be delivering these buckets along with a program brochure to the doorstep of all single-family households the last week in June.

Approximately 50% of residential ‘garbage’ is comprised of food scraps and soiled paper. By participating in this program, residents will help divert that material from landfills (saving landfill space) to more sustainable options. The material collected in the green cart will be taken to the Zero Waste Energy Development Company (ZWED) in north San Jose, where it will be anaerobically digested and composted. This process yields both renewable energy and compost – used to enrich our soil.

Additionally, residential food scrap compost collection will help protect the climate. Decomposing food scraps release methane in landfills, which uncaptured, is a potent greenhouse gas. This program is anticipated to reduce community greenhouse gas emissions by over 1,140 metric tons of CO2 equivalent each year.

Every bit of food scraps and soiled paper kept from the landfill and placed into the green cart will help Palo Alto achieve its goals of Zero Waste and Climate Protection.

More information about the program is available online at www.cityofpaloalto.org/foodscraps or by calling (650) 496-5910.

City staff will also hold four public meetings about this program:

Wednesday, June 24
7:00 PM-8:30 PM
Lucie Stern Community Center, Community Room
1305 Middlefield Road

Saturday, June 27
10:00 AM -11:30 AM
Cubberley Community Center, H-1
4000 Middlefield Road

Tuesday, July 7
7:00 PM-8:30 PM
Lucie Stern Community Center, Community Room
1305 Middlefield Road

Saturday, July 11
10:00 AM-11:30 AM
Cubberley Community Center, H-1
4000 Middlefield Road

Zero Waste Palo Alto is a program of the Public Works Department. Our mission is to work in partnership with the community to eliminate waste wherever possible and then manage the discards we do have through reuse, recycling and composting. For more information about Zero Waste go to www.zerowastepaloalto.org, follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/zerowastepaloalto, emailzerowaste@cityofpaloalto.org or call (650) 496-5910.