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Worth Your Time

On behalf of the Deep River SustainableCT Committee, I want to advise Deep River residents, that our recent food scrap collections at the transfer station have been declining. For the fourth quarter of 2023, monthly collections averaged 10,150 pounds, but for the most recent three months, the average was down to 6,208 pounds, a 39% decrease.

If the decrease is because you’ve run out of the green bags supplied by the Town, you can still participate! Please use a Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI) compostable bag, a paper bag, or just dump straight from a container, without a bag into the transfer station bin. The green bags should no longer be used because they limit food scrap treatment options.

Please use one of the accepted methods above to put your food scraps into the green collection bin, and do not throw them into the trash hopper.

Currently, the Town pays tipping fees of nearly 6 cents per pound for the trash hopper waste. Further, tipping fees are slated to increase to 7 cents and may increase further to nearly 10 cents per pound. So, the above decrease in food scraps could be costing taxpayers about $240 per month but could go to nearly $400 monthly if the current trend continues.

Last, we ask residents to appreciate that food scrap collection is a “value-added” program. Namely, food scraps go from being a waste (negative value) to a fuel (positive value) used by Quantum Biopower to produce electricity or compost.

Waste is worth your time to think about. Trash management is becoming ever more challenging. Therefore, we must not only reduce costs but support these value-added opportunities whenever possible so we gain maximum benefit going forward.

Jerry Richard

Deep River