Meriden Food Scrap Pilot Program Kicks Off

MERIDEN, CT — The city has partnered with Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) in a first-of-its-kind municipal food scrap co-collection pilot program.

The pilot, funded through a $40,000 state grant, began in early February and has collected 5,600 pounds (2.5 tons) of food scrap from participating households, according to a statement from the city.

Thirty-five percent of what state residents throw away is organic material—food scraps and yard waste—that can be diverted from the trash for composting, anaerobic digestion, or processing into animal feed.

For the pilot program, about 1,000 Meriden households were provided with special color-coded bags to dispose of food scraps and other organic waste, which are collected at the same time as trash and transported to Quantum Biopower in Southington, where the organic waste is transformed into renewable energy (biogas) and composted for use as nutrient-rich material that can be used to enrich soil.

Meriden’s pilot is providing the city and the state with information on how the process of food scrap co-collection can reduce the amount of trash residents dispose of, at a time when cities and towns have seen municipal solid waste tipping fees increase considerably over the last few years.

The city makes the following claims about the program thus far:

• At least 25% of participants are separating 8 pounds or more of food scrap per week.
• 70% of the pilot households have returned at least one bag, showing their willingness to try the program.
• Participation is up 76% since the first week of the program.
• If Meriden were to expand this food scrap collection with full unit-based-pricing (pay-as-you-throw) to all households in the municipality, they could achieve a total of a 60% waste reduction which would include 4,000 tons of food waste [or 10,000 tons total including waste reduction and increase in recycling] diverted from the waste stream each year.