Found out my town of 4,200 people put 61 tons of food scraps in the landfill in one month
I went to our city council meeting in Fairview two weeks ago because they were talking about a new compost drop off site, and the public works guy handed out a sheet saying we threw away 61 tons of food scraps in March alone. That works out to about 29 pounds per person, which blew my mind since I figured a small town like ours wouldn't move the needle. Has anyone here actually started a neighborhood compost program? I want to bring a real plan to the next meeting instead of just complaining.
That line about 29 pounds per person is what gets me, because you never think of yourself as part of a number like that until you see it on paper. I started noticing the same thing in my own kitchen, like how fast that bag of spinach goes bad and how much bread gets tossed when nobody finishes the loaf. It adds up so quiet that you don't even clock it. Multiply that by every house on your street and suddenly 61 tons makes total sense. The weird part is most people want to do better but there's nowhere to put the stuff, so it just goes in the trash by default. If Fairview gets a drop off site going, that alone probably cuts a big chunk because people will use it if it's easy.