Jacksonville City Council has approved a new six month pilot program to encourage and test the efficacy of commercial composting, a type of food waste management, through partnership with local composting facility Sunshine Organics and Compost. The goal of the program is not to start a new city-operated compost collection but to encourage and normalize composting as a waste management alternative. The city has almost no financial obligation to the program. After six months, its role will end, leaving future composting endeavors to private businesses.

“It’s a process of getting composting in the minds of the citizens of Jacksonville and seeing how the process works,” Ron Salem, council member and sponsor of the bill, said. The city’s trash fund stays in the red because of a gap between what the city charges and its operating expenses. To offset the cost, the city pulls from the general fund – something Salem said would possibly come up in council to alter once a new mayor and council are elected in the spring.

City Council formed a special committee on waste management early last year to develop multi-faceted solutions to the city’s waste management. Salem chaired the committee, which he said is where he got the ideas for recent recycling initiatives and for the compositing pilot.

To read the full story, visit https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/politics/government/2023/01/27/jacksonville-composting-program-approved-riverside/69836987007/.
Author; Hanna Holthaus, Florida Times-Union
Image: The Florida Times-Union

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