Since 1997 the District had operated a commercial food waste composting program in conjunction with the Rutland Natural Resources Conservation District.

The program served restaurants, supermarkets, wholesale produce distributors and even a greenhouse by providing a convenient and cost effective means of disposal for vegetable food waste. Last year 724,018 pounds of food waste were composted under this program.
Instead of tossing these organic scraps into the dumpster, generators placed acceptable waste into two-wheeled toters that could be positioned near the employee’s work station. When the toter was full, it was stored near a loading dock where the District’s truck would pick them up and replace the full toters with clean empty ones. The full toters were then taken to an area farm where the food scraps were mixed with animal waste and other organic ingredients to produce a very rich composted fertilizer for application to fields.

Currently the District is in the permit process with a farm in Danby VT to restart the commercial food waste collection and composting program. Stay tuned for information.

If you are interested in learning more about the District’s food waste program, call Deane Wilson at 802-775-7209.