This commentary is by Michele Morris, director of communications for the Chittenden Solid Waste District, based in Williston.
When I brought my own reusable container for leftovers from a local restaurant not long ago, the server thanked me and remarked on all the disposable foodware they had been generating during the height of the pandemic.
“I mean, at least we compost it,” she lamented, “but it just seems so wasteful!”
And she’s right. It is wasteful to be using anything just once. Whether it ends up being landfilled, recycled, or composted, it’s still a waste of all the water, labor, raw materials and energy that went into creating and transporting that thing just so you could use it once and toss it “away.”
The Chittenden Solid Waste District operates Vermont’s largest organics diversion facility, where we turn 5,000 tons of food scraps into soil-enriching Green Mountain Compost every year.
We are all too familiar with the “halo effect” that has been granted to compostable foodware. These cups, clamshells, plates and utensils have been coming into our facilities at a record pace.
Compostable products seldom add value to compost, and they prevent us from selling our compost for use in organic farms and gardens. Even worse, research by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality revealed that often, these products have a bigger lifetime environmental footprint than non-compostable items.
If that isn’t concerning enough, foodware made from paper and other fibers is often treated with PFAS, a class of chemicals used for moisture and grease resistance that persists in the environment and has been linked to numerous health risks.
The Chittenden Solid Waste District is facing an even more acute problem because of the huge surge in use of these products. Consumers often mistake non-compostable plastic and plastic-coated foodware for compostable versions, and they end up overwhelming our facility and contaminating our compost with bits of plastic fragments.
There is no way for us to separate certified compostable foodware from non-compostable lookalikes in the multi-ton loads of food that come to our facility.
This is why, effective Jan. 1, 2022, the Chittenden Solid Waste District will no longer accept any compostable foodware at our organics diversion facility or in the food scrap bins at our drop-off centers.
Here’s what we will accept:
- Food scraps of any kind
- Paper coffee filters and teabags
- Certified, clearly labeled compostable bags used for lining food scrap containers
- Newspaper and untreated paper bags used to line food scrap containers
- Plain paper towels, napkins and facial tissues that have NOT been in contact with body fluids or chemicals of any kind
- Wooden or bamboo stirrers, toothpicks (no plastic frills), chopsticks
As a result of this announcement, food-based businesses and events may choose to continue providing compostable cups and containers, but these containers must not be included with food scraps headed our compost facility. Others may choose to switch to containers made from recycled plastic that you can recycle at home (provided you rinse or wipe it out first, of course).
The Chittenden Solid Waste District outreach team is working closely with local businesses, schools and other institutions to ensure they understand all their options, including durable/reusable ware programs such as the Eco-Ware reusable takeout container program in use at UVM since 2011.
If you use a pickup service for your food scraps at your home or place of work, be sure you ask what you can and can’t include in the bin it provides. If the pickup service allows foodware of any kind after Jan. 1, 2022, we recommend you ask where your food scraps are going, and whether it is all being used to enrich local soils.
If you compost at home, you may find that some fiber-based compostable products break down just fine in your system. We recommend, however, that you know what brand it is and check this PFAS Central website list of PFAS-free products before adding any compostable products to your home pile.
Make no mistake, we should all be proud of how enthusiastically Vermonters have embraced our little state’s commitment to keeping food out of the landfill. We’ve seen a whopping 81% increase in residential food scraps brought to our drop-off centers in the last two years, all of which became highly prized, garden-boosting Green Mountain Compost.
Compost returns essential nutrients to our land, conserves water, and helps reduce the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. Plus, by keeping food scraps out of the trash, we are conserving space in Vermont’s one and only landfill in Coventry and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and leachate from wasted food slowly rotting in that environment.
That’s great news and the Chittenden Solid Waste District will continue to lead the way in supporting this effort as part of our mission. But it isn’t the whole story. Composting, like recycling, is not a cure for our insatiable consumption and increasing reliance on disposable products. This Reuse Wins report from Upstream reminds us what our thrifty forebears already knew: Reuse beats single use every single time.
Let’s all agree to put the first two “Rs” back in the forefront of our consumption habits. Prevent and reduce waste and consumption first, reuse as much as you can, and recycle what’s left — the right way, and as a last resort.