Community

Riverhead opens Long Island’s first food scraps drop off facility

Riverhead residents have a new way to handle food waste. In collaboration with the Long Island Organics Council and other environmental and civic groups, the Town of Riverhead recently celebrated the launch of its new food scrap drop-off program.

Town residents can now separate food scraps from other household garbage, store them in a countertop receptacle and drop off the contents in designated recycling bins at the town’s yard waste facility, located at 532 Youngs Ave. in Calverton.

The drop-off site will accept fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, egg shells, bread, pasta, grains and cut flowers with all plastics and packaging removed. The facility will not accept food containers, fats, oil or grease, meat and dairy products, pet waste or cat litter.

The new initiative was made possible through a $20,000 grant the Long Island Organics Council and its sister nonprofit, Green Inside and Out, received from the New York State Pollution Prevention Institute to establish Long Island’s first food scrap drop-off program, which is modeled on similar programs in upstate New York. Members of these groups worked with the Greater Calverton Civic Association, the North Fork Environmental Council and the town’s Environmental Advisory Committee after determining Riverhead was the optimal location for the program.

Judy Greco, co-founder of the Long Island Organics Council, said Riverhead’s previous composting effort — the Calverton food scrap pick-up pilot program that collected 2,200 pounds of food scraps from nine households and three restaurants over the span of 90 days last year — made the town an ideal partner. 

“We want to do our part and are excited to be leading the way,” Riverhead Town Supervisor Yvette Aguiar said in a statement.

Similar programs will likely become popular island-wide in the near future. Mark Haubner, president of the North Fork Environmental Council and a co-chair of Riverhead’s Environmental Advisory Committee, said he has been collaborating with other East End townships to help establish food scrap drop-off programs.

By the end of 2030, Mr. Haubner said he expects 100% participation in Riverhead’s food scrap recycling program.

The food scraps delivered to Calverton will be converted to compost on town property adjacent to the drop-off site. According to Mr. Haubner, this compost will likely be distributed to program participants, as well as to the town’s engineering and recreation departments to use on various town properties.

Explaining the benefits of the program, Ms. Greco said prospective participants can help enrich their local soil by contributing food scraps to the compost, which provides nutrients that bolster crop quality.

“It’s regenerative, it’s effective economically,” she said. “And most of all, it’s just the right thing to do.”

Participants can drop-off their food scraps during the yard waste facility’s regular hours, 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Thursday through Monday. To sign up for the program, and receive a complementary counter-top food scrap container, visit riverheadny.municipalone.com or email [email protected].