Food leftovers and Yard Waste Bin

Do you know what goes in a yard-waste bin?
No, the answer's not that easy -- but county to tell you

By KRISTIN DIZON
P-I REPORTER

King County's program to recycle food and yard waste into compost makes it a national leader. But its citizens haven't followed its lead -- currently about 38 percent of the trash sent to the county's landfill is food.

So, the county is starting an educational campaign -- with TV and radio ads, direct mailings and more -- to urge residents to recycle their food waste in the yard-waste bin.

Their message: please, please do it. Oh, and it's pretty easy.

The average family in the county (excluding Seattle) produces around 40 pounds of food and related paper waste each week. More than 137,000 compostable tons (256,000 tons if you count commercial food waste as well) went to the landfill last year.

"An awful lot of that still goes into the garbage and we would like that to be diverted to the compost," said Tom Watson, a project manager for the King County Solid Waste Division.

Cedar Grove Composting Inc., a for-profit, private company, turns the food waste into compost, a nutrient-rich soil additive.

To drum up higher participation, the county has produced two educational TV ads that will air on cable and on-demand cable, and will create radio spots as well. The $100,000 media campaign, beginning in July and lasting through March, is being funded by a grant from the state Department of Ecology, said Gerty Coville, another project manager with the county division.

The county began curbside collection of yard and food waste in 2004 with the cities of Bellevue, Kirkland, Issaquah and Redmond. This year, the collection service has expanded from about 25 percent of single-family homes in the county outside Seattle to 57 percent. The county anticipates that about 80 percent of households will be served by the end of this year.

But, even with the ease of curbside pickup, participation rates are lower than hoped. Currently, of the 166,700 single-family homes in the county that have yard-waste collection, only 40 percent, or 66,800, put the cart out for pickup, a recent survey for King County found. And of those, only 19 percent, or a total of 12,600 households, actually put any food in the carts, said Josh Marx, a senior planner with King County Solid Waste.

The biggest hurdles seem to be that people aren't sure what, exactly, to throw in the yard- and food-waste bins and they're grossed out by the odors and potential mess of storing food scraps. "We call it the ick factor," Marx said. "Somehow it's just so gnarly that people are afraid to try it."

Seattle, which has separate waste hauling and recycling from the county, started collecting food waste with yard waste in 2005. Last year, the city's residential waste stream sent 133,000 tons to the landfill -- of that, nearly 60,000 tons could have been diverted as recyclable food and food-soiled paper.

Seattle is seeing participation rise and food waste decrease. In 2005, about 100,000 single-family households put 6,000 tons of food into their yard-waste carts. Last year, that figure doubled to 12,000 tons, said Brett Stav of Seattle Public Utilities. The city's goal for this year is to divert 20,000 tons from the landfill -- or about one-third of residential food and food-soiled paper that's currently tossed.

In the county, the yard and food waste is delivered to Cedar Grove's two plants, in Maple Valley and Everett. Combined, the plants have a capacity of about 360,000 tons of organic waste material, and currently operate at about 70 percent of that maximum, with room for future growth.

Last year, the company produced about 270,000 cubic yards of compost, most sold in bulk by the cubic yard through dealers or to landscapers, said Susan Thoman, head of marketing and business development.

A cubic foot of compost retails for about $3.90 to $5 a bag, and is sold at Lowe's and Home Depot in Western Washington and Oregon, in addition to smaller hardware and garden stores. The company sells about 90 percent of its compost within a 50-mile radius of each plant.

"Our motto is that what we take out of your yard and the food waste from your table ends up back in your yard," Thoman said.

RECYCLING TIPS

For food and food-soiled paper:

# Items that can be added to the yard-waste carts: vegetable and fruit trimmings, egg shells, coffee grounds (and filters), tea bags, egg shells, nut shells and grains, such as bread, pasta, rice, crackers and pretzels.

# Food-soiled paper towels, napkins, plates and bags are fine, as are cardboard pizza boxes.

But, don't add any wax-coated or plastic-coated paper, such as milk cartons or ice cream containers. If it's shiny, it shouldn't go in the bin. (Yes, at first they said those were OK, but have since learned that the plastic doesn't break down sufficiently.) Some paper takeout food boxes and to-go coffee cups can be recycled, but others are coated.

# If you get weekly yard-waste pickup, you can add dairy and meat products (including bones), but double-check with your waste hauler. In Seattle, which has twice-monthly pickup, residents cannot recycle meat and dairy.

# To cut down on smells and mess, you can keep a bag of food waste in the freezer and add to it until you're ready to throw it in the bin. Others use food-scrap bins, some with carbon filters or lids to cut odors.

# Some line their yard-waste bin with newspaper to cut odors.

# To check out your own service area or for more information online, go to recyclefood.com, or for information on Cedar Grove compost, see cedar-grove.com.

P-I reporter Kristin Dizon can be reached at 206-448-8118 or kristindizon@seattlepi.com.
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