Font ResizeBRATTLEBORO -- At the end of the month, the town will distribute donated curbside containers and kitchen counter top containers to the 150 participants of the Curbside Compost Pilot. Distribution will take place on July 28 and Aug. 4 at the grassy area between the Department of Public Works and the Recycling Drop-Off Center on Fairground Road at 9 a.m.
Eight different manufacturers of containers and biodegradable bags are participating in the pilot project which will collect compost and organics from the curbside of Brattleboro residents. Collection of the compost will begin on Friday, Aug. 17, and will continue for four months. After the pilot, it is anticipated that the program will be extended to all Brattleboro residents currently receiving curbside trash and recycling pick up.
Compost and organics account for up to 33 percent of household trash. Diversion of this part of the waste stream and processing into marketable compost has many benefits -- it will lengthen the life of Vermont’ s only two landfills; it will reduce the amount of methane, a significant greenhouse gas, generated from buried organics; it will reduce Brattleboro’s carbon footprint by vastly reducing long distance trucking; and it will save the town many thousands of dollars annually in tipping fees.
Participants in the pilot project will be easily identified by "Curbside Compost" yard signs in the coming weeks and months. Friends and neighbors
New Chapter, a Brattleboro company, has generously underwritten the cost of the signs. The manufactures donating to the pilot are Ameri-Kart Industries, BioBag-USA, Cascade Cart Solutions, GLAD Bags, IPL, ORBIS/Norseman, Schaefer Systems International and TOTER.
For more information, contact Moss Kahler, Brattleboro Recycling Coordinator, at brattleborocompost@comcast.net.
