On January 2, the City of Fayetteville started a new program that is now accepting compostable food waste at two drop-off locations at no cost. The City of Fayetteville says it is working hard to meet an important goal of diverting at least 40 percent of all waste sent to the landfill by 2027 and says, “composting is essential to this goal because food waste makes up 18 percent of the total waste going to the landfill.”
The food waste collected will be combined with the commercial food waste and processed into nutrient-rich compost available for purchase. The commercial food waste compost program began as a pilot program in 2016 with only nine customers and now multiple grocery stores and restaurants throughout the city have added this service which is held three times a week. This was added in addition to recycling to reduce overall trash costs and materials sent to the landfill. For residential collection, City staff recommends placing materials in a lidded container and dropping off once a week to reduce odors.