The Katrina Mygatt Recycling Center bustled as residents parked their cars and dropped off cardboard boxes, books, furniture and other items at the facility on Magee Avenue. A few of those residents deposited food scraps into a bin that was sitting alongside a hulking green machine. It was the recycling center’s new composter, capable of processing five times as much food as the first machine the city purchased for the food scrap recycling program it launched earlier this year. “I’d been looking for a compost program for a while,” said one resident, Bobbi-Sue Doyle-Hazard.
She cooks often, she said, and drops off food scraps at the center about twice a week. “I’m happy that it’s getting used and we’re doing something … that’s great for the planet,” she said. The first machine — which could process 100 pounds of food waste a day — arrived in Stamford a few months ago after a delay caused by the blockage of the Suez Canal. The city started letting residents drop off food scraps at the recycling center in June.
Residents have been bringing 150 to 200 pounds of food waste to the center a day, said Dan Colleluori, the city’s director of recycling and sanitation. Up until Aug. 3, the facility was only open three days a week, so the extra food could be processed on the days it was closed. But now, the center is open five days a week. So, the city got an upgrade. The new machine, which was not yet up and running early Tuesday afternoon, can process 500 pounds a day.