Food Composting Coming to Marin

April 5th, 2010 By Ginger Wilcox

I got a notice from Marin Sanitary Service today that made me smile.  Yes, I know that sounds strange.   Apparently, Marin Sanitary Service is finally bringing the county’s first food composting program to Marin.  I was sad to see it won’t immediately impact where I live, but the program is being rolled out in stages.  The program will start in the San Anselmo & Fairfax communities of Sleepy Hollow, Oak Manor, and Bolinas Ridge in April.

According to wikipedia, composting is the purposeful biodegration of organic matter such as yard and food waste.  The Environmental Protection Agency says that composting can:

• Suppress plant diseases and pests.
• Reduce or eliminate the need for chemical fertilizers.
• Promote higher yields of agricultural crops.
• Facilitate reforestation, wetlands restoration, and habitat revitalization efforts by amending contaminated, compacted, and marginal soils.
• Cost-effectively remediate soils contaminated by hazardous waste.
• Remove solids, oil, grease, and heavy metals from stormwater runoff.
• Capture and destroy 99.6 percent of industrial volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) in contaminated air.
• Provide cost savings of at least 50 percent over conventional soil, water, and air pollution remediation technologies, where applicable.

Residents in Marin Sanitary Service’s pilot program will be able to put food scraps into their yard waste cans.  For more information, call (415) 456-2601.

I am looking forward to seeing this program expand throughout Marin and beyond!

~Ginger