Food Waste Recycling Program

About the Program

Category: County Resiliency (Best in Category)

Year: 2017

In 2015, Wake County’s Solid Waste Management Division started a food waste recycling program to divert organic materials from the landfill. The impetus for this program was data identified in a waste characterization study of Wake County’s residential trash indicating that nearly a quarter of the residential waste stream consisted of potentially compostable materials, such as food waste. In response, Wake County began working on a study to determine the demand for organic material waste diversion and develop options for residential food waste recycling. Wake County worked with North Carolina State University to conduct an onsite survey of county waste and recycling facility users to gauge their interest in food waste diversion. The survey found that nearly 40% of site users were interested in recycling their food waste and other organics at the facility. On August 1, 2015, Wake County launched a food waste recycling program at two waste and recycling drop-off sites. This was the first multi-site residential food waste recycling drop-off program of its kind in North Carolina. The county contracts with a local food waste hauler to provide weekly collection and hauling of the food waste to a local composting facility, where the organic material is processed into soil. To encourage participation, the county developed a robust outreach program to educate the public about the program and provided free kitchen collection caddies for residents to use to transport their food waste to the site. The 12 month pilot proved successful by diverting more than 28,000 pounds of food waste from the landfill. In August 2016, Wake County expanded the program to four sites. All together the sites are averaging more than 6,000 pounds of food waste collected per month. Wake County is planning on adding two additional collection sites to the program within the next few months.