A new community composting plan was approved by the Selectboard, beginning the process of getting a weekly compost collection program off the ground for Gill residents as a prior food waste pickup system is phased out. A “composting coop” will be located near the electric vehicle charging stations in the parking lot of the Riverside Municipal Building on Route 2. Residents who wish to use the site to drop off 5-gallon pails of food waste can sign up to receive a padlock code to access the enclosure once sign-up becomes available. The placement of the composting coop away from homes, with wood shavings placed on the ground, is designed to alleviate odor from the food waste.
A curbside pickup program for composting that has been available through The Compost Cooperative of Greenfield will no longer service Gill residents beginning Aug. 1 because of its cost-prohibitive nature, with only 12 households having signed up for the service, according to Town Administrator Ray Purington and Franklin County Solid Waste Management District Executive Director Jan Ameen. This prompted the town and district to work together to implement a new composting program that will service all Gill residents.
The Selectboard unanimously voted to begin the process of sourcing the equipment for the site and beginning community outreach efforts to notify residents about the new composting program. Funding, both for start-up costs and outreach materials, comes from the state’s Recycling Dividends Program, which provides grants to municipalities that have implemented specific programs and policies that are proven to maximize reuse, recycling and waste reduction.