Harrisonburg, Va. Composting Project Expands to Accept Food Scraps

A project in Harrisonburg, Va. is helping the community combat food waste by creating a designated space for community compost bins.

In 2016, the Climate Alliance of the Valley began collecting food scraps at the Harrisonburg Farmer’s Market. To help collect even more, the community compost bins are now available 24 hours a day for residents to drop off their food scraps. A recent expansion allows the project to keep up eight food scrap bins outside of Harrisonburg City Hall.

The Climate Action Alliance explained that not everyone has space in their homes to keep food scraps to be recycled. Adrie Voors, the project’s co-coordinator, mentions that the collected food scraps can be used to help nourish plants.

“Probably about close to a ton of scraps go through here every week and get turned into some of this stuff,” said Voors, “It’s really nice, rich, beautiful, finished compost that’s used to support area gardens and farms.”

The coordinators partner with Black Bear Composting to accept more than just food scraps. The program accepts compostable plastics as well.

Voors commented that people are requesting more drop-off locations for their food scraps around the area.

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