Pennsylvania County Opens Food Waste Drop Off Sites

In Centre County, Pa., the Centre Region Council of Governments is launching food scrap drop-off sites, hoping to help manage the area’s kitchen food waste.

Central Pennsylvania, much like the rest of the country, is dealing with a large amount of food waste entering its landfills. The EPA still estimates that roughly 24% of solid waste that hits the trash sites is food waste.

“Our landfills, we need to save for stuff that can’t be recycled,” Refuse and Recycling Program Administrator Shelly Mato said. “Your food waste, your yard waste, can all be recycled into compost.”

The pilot program for the drop off sites launched earlier this month. There are five drop offs located around the county for residents to bring their food waste. The sites will also accept garden trimmings and weeds, but normal garbage must be left for normal trash pickup, to avoid contamination of the composting.

“That kind of contamination contaminates the whole load, and if it continues, we’ll have to shut the site down,” Mato said.

Residents need to apply to receive information about the five locations for their food waste. The program is free to register and has no cost to locals for food waste drop off.

The program runs through October, at which point the committee will evaluate the program’s impact on local waste. If the program proves to be successful, more drop off locations will be added to the region.

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