Fruits and vegetable scraps, coffee grinds, egg shells... These are all common things found in a kitchen or restaurant, but once they're used or have gone bad, more often than not, they end up in landfills.
However, when properly disposed, the scraps can be turned into the nutrient rich matter that compost is. And thanks to newer initiatives like the City of Buffalo's Scrap It program, it's easy to do.
"Well, residents can use any container of their choice, the city is giving out pails that they can collect the material in all week and they can drop it off at one of five locations located throughout the city," said Susan Attridge, City of Buffalo Director of Refuse and Recycling. "We then are working with a vendor called natural up-cycling where they remove the material the day after the event and it either goes to a food waste digester out in Pavilion, New York or it goes to a compost site right here in the city of Buffalo."
After launching last year with just one drop-off site, residents can now bring their scraps to five locations from June through September.
- South Buffalo Farmers Market
- Massachusetts Avenue Project Farmstand
- North Buffalo Farmers Market
- Broadway Market
- Downtown Country Farmers Market
More than a ton of food waste has already been collected.
"Well in the city, it's hard to do in your backyard because people do have a concern about rodents so there's a lot of people in the city who wanted this," Attridge said.
However, for the past seven years, residents and restaurants have had composting help thanks to the Farmer Pirates Compost Crew. The paid service provides a container for your scraps which is collected every two weeks, all year long.
"People are really grateful to have found a service that can do it for them. Yes it is very easy, you really don't have to think about it. It makes their garbage way less stinky and way lighter and people just love knowing that they're doing something good," said Terra Dumas, Farmer Pirate Compost Crew co-owner. "They have a way that they can contribute. I mean, before we started to run this service there wasn't really an option. You had to throw it in the garbage or you had to compost on your own."
But the Farmer Pirates are happy to see other programs like the city's popping up.
"It would be awesome if one day the city of Buffalo would do curbside collection of compost like many other large cities around the country do, if that means we're put out of business that's totally fine, you know if people are composting that is what we want," Dumas added.
While Attridge says curbside compost pickup isn't quite feasible, they are looking into the idea of expanding into the winter months, and adding more locations.
She also hopes this encourages people to think of ways to create less food waste in general.
"One is to shop smarter, I think for so many years we we're taught to buy in bulk. Well the problem with buying in bulk is you can't eat it all, you can't freeze it all, and so often times people end up throwing out that material," said Attridge.
She recommends making a list each week of what you need to buy so you're only purchasing thing you know you'll consume. She also says any non-perishable items you don't use can be donated.