Montgomery County Unveils New Food Scraps Recycling Program

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD – In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, Montgomery County has unveiled a new recycling program to help local businesses and organizations recycle food scraps.

The county Department of Environmental Protection announced the new Commercial Food Scraps Recycling Program on Wednesday. The program will not be implemented until restrictions of the new coronavirus health crisis have been lifted.

When the program begins, businesses and organizations that produce large amounts of food scraps will separate and store food scraps that will then be picked up by a food scraps recycling truck. The food scraps will be taken to the Prince George's County Organics Composting Facility and processed along with yard trim materials to create compost.

It is estimated that the commercial sector generates 68,000 tons of food scraps annually, representing the majority of all food scraps found in the county's waste stream.

"Food scraps are the 'Next Frontier' materials in our county recycling program," County Executive Marc Elrich said in a prepared statement. "It is public-private partnerships like this that bring out communities together in working to reduce waste, clean up our environment and help us attain our community-wide climate goals to be carbon neutral by 2035."

Businesses currently have to pay to have their trash collected and disposed. By participating in this program, the county will provide food scraps pickup and recycling, meaning businesses will save money on trash collection.

Items that will be accepted for the food scraps recycling program include fruits and vegetables; dairy products; bread and pasta; seafood; eggs and eggshells; paper towels; coffee grounds; tea bags; food-soiled newspaper; meat; spoiled food; and certain types of compostable food service ware products.