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Riverhead composting initiative picks up steam

It’s been almost 18 months since the Town of Riverhead launched its first food composting program, and it’s being called a success — with room for expansion. 

All seven of the town’s school’s are participating, but only a small percentage of residents have joined in. Officials are encouraging more residents to participate, as the town has made it a priority to reduce the amount of garbage that must be trucked elsewhere for disposal.

Just inside the gate at the town’s Yard Waste Facility in Calverton are 16 bright green garbage pails in two neat rows, inside which ecological activity is in progress thanks to residents who deposit their food scraps there. Decomposing eggshells, coffee grounds, bits of carrots, cucumber peels, rotting tomatoes and various other decaying vegetables are a tasty treat for the fruit flies that are hard at work transforming the organic material into compost.

Riverhead’s food scrap program began with a three-month pilot several years ago. The town then reorganized to make it easier to catalog the food waste coming in and simpler for residents to register. The George Young Community Center in Jamesport was then added as a second drop-off point, with two bins.

“We want more people to take part in the program. We’re expanding the number of drop-off locations, and we’re working on having our crews go out to people’s homes to pick up the scraps,” said Drew Dillingham, Riverhead’s superintendent of sanitation. “The waste can’t have contaminants in it … things like wrappers and rubber bands.”

The program currently includes 80 participating residences, but Mr. Dillingham said the town wants to expand it to all 16,000 Riverhead households. Residents interested in signing up can contact the engineering department at Town Hall. 

Program participant Jean Bolger of Jamesport says she’s passionate about food composting and has changed all her habits since registering for the program. “I love talking about compost. I think my scrap bag was the first one to go into the bin at George Young,” she said. “I’ve been buying and using the town’s biodegradable bags for about a year and I have the counter top bucket — that’s where all my veggie scraps go. It only takes a few minutes and it cuts down on my garbage pickup.”

Sanitation officials are still experimenting with combining “green” vegetation (food compost) with “brown” (leaves, brush and twigs) to get the mix to the optimal temperature for turning out the best quality compost. “It might take another year to master it,” said Mr. Dillingham, and then the compost can be distributed to residents. The sanitation department plans to launch an education campaign as part of the town’s solid waste management plan.

“With over 10 tons of food scraps collected in under a year, we’re ready to expand to reach the goal of all 16,000 households in Riverhead participating. There are lots of grants from the USDA and the EPA for food waste reduction and collection, which creates vital soil for our farming community across the East End,” said Jason Blizzard, former principal engineering aide who left the town in Sept. The Town believes the program minimizes costs of waste hauling, lowers emissions from landfills and at the same time, returns organic matter to the soil.

Mark Haubner, co-chair of Riverhead’s environmental advisory committee, has worked closely with the town on the food scrap program. “Pure tonnage is the way to quantify the success,” he said. “It’s two- to-one methane mitigation, so for every ton of greens, we’re saving two tons of methane. This is non-partisan; everyone eats.”

“Over the last year, we did 10 tons,” Mr. Dillingham said. “That’s a lot!” With state grants, he’s also hoping to partner with Southold Town and expand the program across both municipalities. 

“It’s a little thing that everyone can do,” Ms. Bolger said. “I hope to see my compost out on the median in Riverhead someday.”