Cheer up, L.A. Your basketball team may have gotten smoked by the Celtics, but at least things are looking up on the food waste front.
The City of Angels will launch a pilot program for household food waste composting in September. While the test program will only include 8,700 homes, let’s hope it catches hold because it’s needed.
The Daily News article says that a whopping 27 percent of the city’s regular trash is food waste. Considering the U.S. average is 18 percent, I’d say L.A. is due.
Participants will be given little pails for their food waste, which they’ll dump into the existing yard waste collection service. Kind of like the Lakers got dumped…
All ‘trash talk’ aside, let’s hope this program takes root. If curbside composting flies in L.A.–a place where style seems to trump substance–it can work anywhere!
6 Comments
We compost at our house, but only items that do not contain grease, butters and oils.
Would this curbside compost pickup have any limitations on what can go into it?
I am so glad to hear this is starting to happen…Do you think this mass composting will be a way to revitalize a much over used agricultural land maybe?
I compost at home, and have for many years. I become very away of my waste when i compost – i noticed most of it comes from food packaging (processed) – which motivates me to buy less processed foods.
Sounds good, Danielle. I don’t know whether the pickup would have limitations, but I’d bet it wouldn’t allow meats, fats, oils and grease.
From what I understand–and I’m no expert–you can compost those items, but most people choose not to because they’re afraid of attracting pests.
That’s really cool…I wish they had something like that here.
Kristen, where’s here?
I’m so glad to know that I’m ahead of the curve in LA County! 😉 My new landlady would definitely NOT appreciate a compost heap in the yard, so I’ve been surreptitiously dumping my compostable kitchen waste in the yard waste for weeks. Goodness knows my few pounds of veggie scraps are nothing compared to the tragic amount of waste that the yard produces (she’s a great landlady but O dear, she hates xeriscaping, she thinks it’s ugly).