This fall, the City of Boston is piloting an expanded Community Compost Program that will provide five drop-off locations for residential food scraps in Boston.
“Composting is important for Boston’s growing urban agriculture movement and meeting our waste reduction goals,” said Mayor Martin J. Walsh. “This program demonstrates Boston’s commitment to composting and willingness to try new approaches.”
Project Oscar consists of two key-pad locked containers—one in East Boston and another in the North End—where residents can drop off food scraps. This pilot will run from September 22 to November 30. To sign up, click here for the North End and here for East Boston.
“As we explore various means of getting food out of our waste stream, lack of storage is often a major impediment in Boston’s denser neighborhoods,” said Public Works Commissioner, Michael Dennehy.” Project Oscar is a new model that may help Boston and other dense cities collect food scraps in Neighborhoods, where it might not be possible through traditional collection methods.”
The second program, a farmers’ market collection, is a spin-off of last year’s pilot and will begin this Friday, September 12, and continue through the end of the market season. This year, the City will be experimenting at three new markets—Dudley Square, Ashmont-Peabody, and Roslindale. The Department of Public Works will be providing the hauling services and City Soil, a local Boston company, will at the markets to collect your food scraps and answer all your compost-related questions! The program hopes to build off of the success of last year’s pilot program, whichdiverted 6,000 pounds of food scraps from the waste stream.
All of the food scraps collected from the program will go to Rocky Hill Farm and turned into compost.
Why compost? There are a ton of environmental and economic benefits to composting. It helps prevent pollution by diverting waste from landfills, helps enrich poor soil, and cleans up contaminated soils by eliminating pesticides and toxins in the ground. It can reduce the need for water, fertilizer and pesticides, and can be sold as a valuable produce to local farms and gardeners. Boston also has a growing urban agriculture movement and composting is an inexpensive and green way to fertilize your crops with your food scraps!
If you can’t make the farmer’s markets or don’t live near a Project Oscar collection bin, don’t worry! The City of Boston sells discounted compost bin and food scrap collection buckets, so you can compost at home. Or, if you have a garbage disposal, you can send your food scraps down your kitchen sink, where they will be turned into renewable energy and fertilizer at Deer Island Waste Water Treatment Facility.
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