HOWARD COUNTY, Md. — Food scraps from the kitchen table are going a lot further than the landfill in Howard County.
When you see those green bins rolling up next to the recycling and trash, you'll know a little less waste in the landfill is going a long way.
It's called Feed the Green Bin program, a way to divert food waste to compost. With the program expanding, 6,000 more households will get to take advantage of this free service in Howard County.
"The EPA for awhile has been saying that about nationwide about 25 to 30 percent of our solid waste that gets buried in landfills is actually organic material, and specifically food waste,” said Mark DeLuca, Chief of Howard County Bureau of Environmental Services.
The food scrap collection program frees up space at landfills for the items that can't be disposed of in any other way. It also reduces greenhouse gases.
"By making sure that we actually put our food scraps in the green bin we're cutting down our methane gas which actually impacts global warming,” said Calvin Ball, Howard County Executive.
Before the expansion, about 37,000 households had the ability to repurpose their food scraps. Now, nearly 60 percent of Howard County will be able to do so.
Food scraps range from fruits and dairy to pizza and house plants. Click here for a list of accepted items.
The process is simple, food waste is separated from the rest of the trash, placed into the green bins and picked up once a week to be delivered to Alpha Ridge Landfill for processing.
"The material will be ground up into a finer grain of material and then mixed with some other wood chips and some other things and stored in the bunkers that are behind me,” said DeLuca.
The whole process for compost takes about 45 to 60 days but once it's finished it becomes soil for the garden or lawn.
The expansion will start November 13.
Households in those areas will receive a postcard in the mail on how to sign up. More information can be found here.
