In Branford, a push to pull organic food scraps from the Town's solid waste stream is getting a boost with a curbside collection pilot program in Short Beach.

The Short Beach pilot program hopes to build awareness about food waste composting, remove some food waste tonnage from municipal solid waste, and help to estimate the savings potential for future programs, said Diana McCarthy-Bercury, the Town's Sustainability and Compliance Manager.

Branford generates over 12,500 tons of municipal solid waste every year. Among all of that tonnage, were all of Branford to fully embrace food waste composting as a practice, "...we can divert 25 percent of our waste tonnage to food waste composting," McCarthy-Bercury noted.

The six-month pilot program began in Short Beach on August 2 with weekly curbside collection services provided by Blue Earth Compost (Hartford) on the same day as trash collection. The Town of Branford is picking up the tab for 100 Short Beach households to participate in the pilot, which asks them to collect food scraps in a special bin and bags provided by Blue Earth. At press time for this story, 70 Short Beach neighbors were signed up, and 30 spots were still available. Interested Short Beachers can register for the remaining pilot openings at www.blueearthcompost.com (first-come, first-served).

Meanwhile, McCarthy-Bercury has applied for a CT Dept. of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) grant, which, if awarded, will extend the pilot program to two additional areas of Branford, yet to be determined. Residents interested in having a pilot program come to their Branford neighborhood should email info@blueearthcompost.com

"We're doing it based off of interest. So if folks are interested in bringing the food waste pilot to their neighborhood, reach out to us and let us know," she said.

Back on June 1, ahead of implementing the curbside pilot program, the Town of Branford also launched "Feed the Earth – Branford" with Blue Earth.

"We wanted to keep the curbside pilot small at first to see how interested people are in it, but we wanted to make food waste collection available for everybody," said McCarthy-Bercury. "Jamie Cosgrove had the idea, to make sure everyone can recycle their food waste if they want to."

The program gives all Branford households the option to separate organic food scraps in compostable bags (such as paper bags) or containers (such as five-gallon buckets) and bring them to special Blue Earth collection bins at the Town's Transfer Station at 747 East Main St. Free "bio bags" for collecting food scraps are also available at the Transfer Station, while supplies last, said McCarthy-Bercury.

The program also alerted residents to the services of Blue Earth Compost, which as of now provides weekly curbside collection for some 50 independent, individual households that have registered with the company as customers, said McCarthy-Bercury.   Based on the number of households along a route, the monthly fee ranges from between $20 to $25, she said. McCarthy-Bercury said Short Beach and Stony Creek are among areas of town with the highest number of participating customers. Branford-based Community Dining Room and Branford High School also use the services of Blue Earth Compost.

"The Community Dining Room sends all their food waste to Blue Earth Compost and has diverted over 18 tons since 2019," McCarthy-Bercury noted.

She also pointed out the materials which can be collected as organic food scraps for this program exceed those with which most back-yard composters may be familiar.

"You can include a lot of things people don't typically put in a back-yard compost pile, such as meat and bones," McCarthy-Bercury said. "So even if you're already composting for your garden, you could have some of these other materials that they'll accept in this food waste pilot."

Other compostable organics include fish and shellfish, dairy products, egg shells, vegetable and fruit scraps, pits and peels, condiments and spices, pasta, bread and cereals, paper napkins, coffee grounds and coffee filters, tea bags, plants, herbs and flowers, incidental oils and fats and even dirty pizza boxes.  McCarthy-Bercury also noted work is underway to create videos that will be accessible to Branford residents on "What Goes into Food Waste Collection" for both programs.

All food waste collected curbside or at the Transfer Station in Branford by Blue Earth Compost goes to  Quantum Biopower (Southington), where it's turned into two by-products: electricity and high quality organic compost.

"For every 10 pounds of [food] compost that Quantum Biopower gets, they can extract 10 pounds of methane for producing electricity, and about 3 pounds of compost," said McCarthy-Bercury.

Seeking Economic and Sustainable Solutions

Charting the progress of the pilot[s] and aggregating food waste tonnage collected at the Transfer Station will help generate critical statistics and gauge the potential for town-wide services in the future. Composting food scraps is also a way to be more economically responsible (by saving per-ton costs for solid waste collection and disposal) and environmentally sustainable with municipal waste, which McCarthy Bercury said is a "...looming problem for the state of Connecticut."

"We've closed our landfills, and you need to put your waste somewhere," she said. "The places where we can send trash and solid waste are disappearing, and other states don't want it."

CT DEEP estimates 2.5 million tons of solid waste is generated annually throughout the state of Connecticut. Adding to that pressure is the expected July, 2022 closure of one of the state's largest trash-to-energy plants, Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority (MIRA) in Hartford.

Branford's solid waste is sent to Covanta, a waste-to-energy facility in Bristol serving a consortium of 14 communities.  At its March 2021 meeting, Branford's Solid Waste Commission budgeted the 2021-22 fiscal year tipping fee (waste per ton delivered for disposal) at $62.28 per ton at Covanta. It also was noted that three years remain on Covanta contract, with Covanta predicting a $3 per ton increase for each of the next three contract years.

Due to burn limits and types of materials which can be burned, "...Covanta is limited in the capacity they can take; the waste that they can turn into energy. They're limited on how much energy they're allowed to produce and put on the grid. They prefer solid waste [but] often times, they're finding a lot of recyclable materials in the waste stream," said McCarthy-Bercury.

Branford residents have already embraced recycling the likes of bottles, cans, plastics, newspapers and cardboard as part of its weekly garbage routine. Continuing efforts to determine what additional materials in the town's municipal waste stream, such as organic food scraps, can be taken out and repurposed to help limit solid waste tonnage and support sustainability is a "no-brainer," said McCarthy-Bercury.

"Branford's also already been doing compost [of] leaves and brush, at the back of our Transfer station. This is just adding another material stream to that," said McCarthy-Bercury.

McCarthy-Bercury works with Branford's Solid Waste Commission to develop more sustainable practices as part of the management of the Town's recycling and solid waste streams. In the near future, the commission will be seeking support from the Town to evaluate all of Branford's recycling and waste streams to determine what makes the most economic sense for the Town and its residents over the next decade, said McCarthy-Bercury.  She also noted the seven-member commission currently has some vacancies; and encourages those residents interested in filling a vacancy to get in touch with the First Selectman's office. Commissioners are appointed by the Board of Selectmen to terms of five years.

As the Town's Sustainability and Compliance Manager, McCarthy-Bercury credits Branford's leadership with its forward-thinking efforts.

"Branford is a very progressive community. It is a very sustainable community. I think we're very lucky to have the town leadership [and department leaders] that we do; and the direction they're taking in making the town sustainable, in terms of the long-term plan," said McCarthy-Bercury.