Maria Vaughan and her husband Michael Wedum, co-founders of Savannah-based food waste composting program Code of Return (COR) Compost, kicked off a pilot program with Thunderbolt as part of the city’s larger conservation effort in the works. Vaughan said they had eight resident sign-ups and at least three restaurants willing to participate in the 60-day composting pilot.
Not only is it an easy way to combat climate change, Vaughan explained, but it’s also, ultimately, cost effective for the city. Edward Drohan, Thunderbolt council member, said he is in the early stages of formulating a conservation plan for the town of about 2,600 and cites slowly increasing water costs as one of the reasons for doing so.
“There’s a dual purpose,” said Drohan. “There’s an overarching conservation goal, which has to do with being good to the earth. Whereas it relates to the water system, it is known that compostables that go down the drain are damaging to the system. Therefore, compostables that don’t go down the drain actually help the system last longer and work better.”
“I never thought about composting because I only thought about it in the context of a garden,” said Stephen Yost, a Thunderbolt resident. “Knowing that somebody is collecting stuff, it helped spark that idea that maybe we should be doing this.”