GNV plans food waste program expansion  

The city of Gainesville's residential food waste composting program looks to expand.
The city of Gainesville's residential food waste composting program looks to expand.
Courtesy city of Gainesville

Everyday kitchen scraps often make their way to the landfill, but the city of Gainesville looks to change that with the residential food waste composting program.  

Currently, there are over 200 households signed up for the experimental program, and the city plans to double this number by the end of summer.  

“Residents have really embraced the program and have been the key to its success,” said Tom Strickland, the city’s recycling program coordinator, in a press release.  

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More than 200 Gainesville residents participate in the city's food waste composting program.
Courtesy city of Gainesville More than 200 Gainesville residents participate in the city’s food waste composting program.

The composting program is a part of the city of Gainesville’s Zero Waste Initiative that began in 2019.  The city hopes to be 90% zero waste by 2030 and be completely waste free by 2040. As one of the many projects, the composting program only has redirected 58 tons of food waste from area landfills.  

“We accept almost all kitchen scraps, leftovers and spoiled produce. What we don’t take is meat or bones or any of those products,” Strickland said in a release.  

Each Tuesday, Beaten Path Compost picks up food waste from participating homes who have put their scraps into a five-gallon bucket provided by the city. They also collect from participating restaurants and businesses. Then, Beaten Path Compost sells it to gardeners and farmers to provide a soil additive.  

One of the participants, Judith Allen, who signed up in 2021, finds that it is easy to fill the bucket.  

“We enjoy lots of watermelon and corn this time of year,” Allen said in a press release. “With three adults in our household, we have plenty of scraps for the bucket and it’s always full by pick-up time.”  

As of now, the city only operates in select neighborhoods, but is looking to expand the program at a later date. The Solid Waste division will notify homeowners via mail if their home is eligible for the program.  

For a complete list of participating neighborhoods, more information, or to sign up for the program, visit the website.   

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Rogers Corner

And this Woke, unnecessary program costs the taxpayers how much money?

Cynthia Binder

rogers cost effective. People put in a trash to landfill.costs money… The bucket of food scraps goes to farmers or even to Gainesville own area to be reduced reused recycled saving tax dollars 💵. 🤔. gee alphabet has 26 ….. create a positive . Compost is a positive. Generate . I pray 🙏 grow something positive.
Days of our lives Roger. 😃 🙂

Mike

So many people have been trained to ‘go with the flow’, and never ask any questions and to never ‘judge’. That concept allows for the weirdest things to expand greatly beyond their worth.

If people knew how to evaluate something they could stand a better chance of understanding what has real value or what simply makes you feel like you’re contributing. When more than half of the population operates on their emotions instead of being thoughtful, it gets very expensive for everyone – but it affects those who really can’t afford it a lot more.

Cynthia Binder

propaganda is a trained conditionally behavior. Nay sayers n agree n follows along cooperation.
Emotional is pain or pleasure? The practice of recycling ♻️ also garbage.
Millions of restaurants and schools institutions even private homes.
This is a plant green object outside…..they need nutrients. Compost is that. Water from compost a1 steak sauce for plants…. amen. Stewards of the planet.
😱I helped planet earth 🌏 🌍 🌎 😌 u can too. 😇

Cynthia Binder

Awesome compost is essential for soil, forest floor example. Flowers, 💐 plants edibles kind
Burn bones in a grill after grilling for ash, as soil additional nutrients. Been doing this for few years . Small…Garden is a wonderful addition. Gainesville thank you for modernization