Green cart compost bins to roll out this June at southwest homes
The city is preparing to roll out its green cart program to collect compostables, with the first carts to be delivered to houses in the southwest at the beginning of June.
Philippa Wagner, the city's green cart implementation leader, said the bins will be delivered quadrant by quadrant, then collection will begin in the same manner.
Residents in the southwest will see their first collection in mid-July, followed by residents in the northwest in mid-August, northeast in early September and southeast in early October.
New composting facility
The carts can take all food — including meat, bones, cheese and plate scrappings — yard and pet waste. They will be brought to the city's new composting facility and turned into compost for gardens, parks and local farms.
Sarah Smith, senior project engineer of the city's composting facility, said compost will be processed in an active stage for 21 days, then a curing stage for 21 days.
"The highest tech part is that we're controlling the moisture content, the temperature, and the time it sits in our composting vessels," she said.
Divert waste from landfills
Along with the green carts, residents will receive a kitchen pail, samples of compostable bags for collecting food scraps, samples of paper yard waste bags, an instruction guide and a collection schedule.
Wagner said the city anticipates the program will divert 85 million kilograms of food and yard waste from landfills each year.
The service will be provided to about 320,000 single family homes, up to and including fourplexes.
City council waived the fee for green cart service in 2017, so residents won't start paying a $6.50 monthly fee until January 2018.
Starting Nov. 1, 2017, building managers of multiple family units will also need to provide residents with access to a composting program.
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