However, there are signs of progress around the country. A recent study by BioCycle and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) reported that a record number of U.S. households, 5.1 million, now have access to food-waste collection services. The study, focused exclusively on programs offered or supported by local governments, showed that access to residential curbside collection programs had almost doubled over the previous three years and that drop-off sites were available to millions more.
"Collection of food scraps needs to be as convenient as trash collection, which for most communities means collection at curbside once a week in a specially provided bin," wrote Brenda Platt, head of ILSR's Composting for Community Initiative and director of the 2017 survey. "Food waste recovery is critical not only to cut waste flowing to dumps and incinerators but also to save the climate."
The study found that there were no dominant collection models; program designs varied widely across the rural, suburban and urban communities surveyed. Most of the food waste that was sorted went to composting facilities, and a handful of programs utilized the waste to run anaerobic digestion facilities to produce natural gas.
The researchers also found that California leads the nation, with the most households having access to curbside collection of food waste (1.74 million) and the largest number of communities (97) offering curbside collection. California's leadership position isn't surprising, given that the state's recycling agency, CalRecycle, is legislatively mandated to reduce flows of organic waste to landfills by 50 percent by 2020 and 75 percent by 2025.
From inception, CMSD engaged with residents to find out if they wanted to increase food waste diversion from the landfill and whether they would be willing to pay for it. The district undertook a phone survey of a thousand residents, almost 1 percent of its population, and the response was clear: A strong majority wanted to increase food-waste diversion and were willing to pay higher collection fees -- an additional $1 to $5 a month -- to fund a new service. With this public support, CMSD launched the program and negotiated a contract with its hauler that guaranteed the district the lowest rate for the company's services into the future. And with the support of its customers and a state-of-the-art anaerobic digestion and natural-gas production facility, Carroll said, the district is well on their way to reaching its diversion goal.
The Costa Mesa Sanitary District project demonstrates that communities can be smarter about how they handle waste. Dramatic improvement is possible with the proper alignment of policy, citizen engagement and technology. However, it's worth noting for others interested in Costa Mesa's model that the success of the district's organic-waste diversion project is strongly tied to its's broader goal of achieving zero waste of all types.
Why is this so important? While one might think of zero waste only as an end goal, Costa Mesa's philosophy is that it's about being on the path to zero. And nationally, with 95 percent of food waste going to landfills, many more communities still need to take their first step onto that path. Engaging in a community-wide discussion around the concept of zero waste would be a great starting point.
