The millions of dollars invested into composting by the city of Napa and Napa Recycling and Waste Services over roughly the past decade was recognized with the 2021 Dave Hardy Leadership in Organics Award. During the Oct. 3 Napa City Council meeting, the California Resource Recovery Association recognized Napa Recycling and Waste Services and the city with the award for the Napa Recycling and Compost Facility’s achievement in reusing materials, preventing waste and composting.
The upgrades allowed Napa Recycling to expand a composting collection program in 2015 to include food and paper scraps, according to Kevin Miller, who directs city recycling programs. That resulted in roughly 10% less residential trash being sent to the landfill and 22,000 more tons of waste being composted, according to a city press release.
“We have a little over 250 businesses and schools on the full composting program. And, I’ve added up real quick, between residential and commercial, we’ve diverted an extra 20,000-plus tons of organics that we would not have if we didn’t have those full programs in the past six-and-a-half years,” Miller said at the meeting. “So that’s a big difference, it makes a big difference to our environment and our community.”
NRWS and Napa have directly invested millions of dollars into the facility since 2014. Those include a $2.3 million organics receiving building; a $2.8 million organics pre-processing system; a $3 million stormwater management system; a grant-funded $440,000 organics “depackager,” and an $11 million “covered aerated static pile covered composting system,” according to a city press release.