Food Scrap Re­cy­cling Pro­jects Ex­pand­ing in New York River­towns

Prompted by their eco-friendly lo­cal or­ga­ni­za­tions, the vil­lages of Dobbs Ferry, Irv­ing­ton, Tar­ry­town and Sleepy Hol­low are now en­gaged in pro­grams of­fer­ing drop-off points to which res­i­dents can bring their col­lected food scraps. From those lo­ca­tions, the food scraps are carted to an up­state com­post­ing fa­cil­ity. They are re­processed there into nu­tri­ent-rich com­post.

The Town of Green­burgh took the early ini­tia­tive in Jan­u­ary 2018, by part­ner­ing with the Green­burgh Na­ture Cen­ter to set up a res­i­den­tial food scrap re­cy­cling pro­gram, the largest in Westch­ester County. The town es­tab­lished a drop-off site for all town res­i­dents at the An­thony F. Vet­eran Park in Harts­dale.

Town Su­per­vi­sor Paul Feiner called it “a first step that could re­duce the amount of garbage that we get rid of.” He now has plans for a sec­ond, much big­ger step. The town is ex­pect­ing a $250,000 grant from the state to pur­chase two trucks so Green­burgh could be­gin curb­side pick-up of food scraps through­out the town be­gin­ning in 2020. “There is a good chance we will be able to pick up curb­side next year,” Feiner said. “It would pro­vide an op­por­tu­nity for the town to work co­op­er­a­tively with the vil­lages. We have to work out an agree­ment with the vil­lages to see if they like the con­cept.”

The Tar­ry­town En­vi­ron­men­tal Ad­vi­sory Coun­cil (TEAC) was suc­cess­ful late last year in hav­ing its vil­lage es­tab­lish a food scrap drop-off pro­ject. Vil­lage Ad­min­is­tra­tor Richard Slinger­land de­scribed it as “a good thing for our com­mu­nity to help re­duce green­house gas.” The vil­lage set up a drop-off lo­ca­tion with mul­ti­ple con­tain­ers ad­ja­cent to Pier­son Park be­tween its Recre­ation Cen­ter and the Se­nior Cen­ter. “We are happy to see over half a ton of food scraps be­ing dropped off each week at the vil­lage’s cur­rent col­lec­tion point,” TEAC co-chairs Rachel Tieger and Dean Gal­lea re­ported last month. Seven dump­sters there each hold about 200 pounds of scraps, the dis­carded trim­mings, left­over and spoiled or ex­pired food, Gal­lea re­lated.

Food scrap col­lec­tion kits are be­ing sold by the vil­lage to make the pro­ce­dure more con­ve­nient for res­i­dents. Each in­cludes a small coun­ter­top bin, a roll of 25 com­postable bags and a larger, lock­able out­door trans­porter bin in which to store the col­lected scraps and bring them to the col­lec­tion point. The kits are avail­able at their cost, $23, at Vil­lage Hall, the Recre­ation Cen­ter and at Warner Li­brary. Only com­postable bags are suit­able for the scrap de­posits, and ad­di­tional rolls of those bags are avail­able at the Recre­ation Cen­ter for $2.

En­cour­aged by its En­vi­ron­men­tal Ad­vi­sory Coun­cil (SHEAC), Sleepy Hol­low has part­nered with Tar­ry­town, sign­ing an In­ter-Mu­nic­i­pal Agree­ment at the end of March, to par­tic­i­pate with that vil­lage’s ex­ist­ing Food Scrap Drop-Off Pro­gram. The two vil­lages will share the cost of a one-year con­tract with Sub­ur­ban Cart­ing to col­lect the scraps from the Tar­ry­town lo­ca­tion and take them to the com­post­ing fa­cil­ity, ac­cord­ing to SHEAC’s Co-Chair, Clair Davis. Drop-off kits are also avail­able at Sleepy Hol­low Vil­lage Hall.

“Com­mu­nity re­ac­tion thus far has been very fa­vor­able among those who are aware of the pro­gram, and greater par­tic­i­pa­tion is an­tic­i­pated as the word gets out more widely,” Davis said. She added that Sleepy Hol­low’s par­tic­i­pa­tion is be­ing pro­moted with posters and fly­ers which are also be­ing trans­lated into Span­ish to reach the vil­lage’s His­panic pop­u­la­tion. “It is im­por­tant to note that the new pro­gram will ac­cept many more items than are us­able in a back­yard plot,” Davis said.

To read the full story, visit https://thehudsonindependent.com/food-scrap-recycling/.