Santa wasn’t the only one who left presents this year. West Valley Collections and Recycling (WVCR) is nearing completion of distributing kitchen buckets to residents to separate kitchen food scraps from trash, in accordance with the new state law aimed at reducing organic waste in landfills.
Eggshells, banana peels, and coffee grounds can be collected in the new bucket in the kitchen and thrown into the garden clippings cart each week to compost.
WVCR Outreach Manager Weslie McConkey said the bin is like a recycling bin, meant to help people sort trash as they dump it.
“The kitchen bin is meant to stay in the kitchen and collect kitchen scraps, and then residents will take that bin to their organic cart and toss it into the cart,” McCronkey added.
This system is different from the Sunnyvale divided trash can that debuted in 2017, causing discomfort among residents because it limited space in the trash can.
The new state law aims to reduce methane emissions caused by organic waste from landfills by requiring all cities and counties to create organic waste reduction plans by early 2022. WVCR signed a contract with Los Gatos, Campbell , Saratoga and Monte Sereno earlier this year. to collect residential compost in West Valley.
WVCR began delivering the buckets to the West Valley in October, and Los Gatos Mayor Rob Rennie said he noticed some residents weren’t sure how to use them.
“I was looking forward to the delivery of the buckets and we actually received our buckets last week,” Rennie said. “While walking through neighborhoods, people have put away their garbage cans, but the bins are still left outside in many places. It’s almost like they don’t know what it’s for or don’t want it. “
McCronkey said the WVCR included a how-to guide with the buckets and a list of acceptable materials, including yard trimmings, egg shells and banana peels.
“With the new state law, we want to make participating in the organic program as easy and convenient as possible to get them off to a good start,” McCronkey said. “We know that change can take a bit of effort, so we want to do everything we can to make it easier and really encourage people to put their organic produce in the organic cart.”
State law sets a goal of reducing organic waste by 75%, which Rachel Wagoner, director of CalRecycle, said would be the equivalent of taking 1.7 million cars off the road.
“In fact, it is really important in the fight against global warming,” Rennie said. “It’s a good way to help fight greenhouse gases by keeping these types of spoilage out of our landfills.”
The decomposing food waste that is dumped in landfills produces methane gas, which is 84 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.
Reducing organic waste will have the fastest impact in the climate crisis, according to CalRecycle.
“In recycling compost it becomes [food waste] so that it is exposed to the air and decomposes properly, ”said Rennie. “But in a garbage dump, it is buried and now it cannot go through a chemical process with oxygen. It goes through one without oxygen and produces methane, which is a much worse greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide ”.
Rennie said the composting program will increase WVCR’s residential service costs by about $ 3 to $ 5 per month.
If residents do not want to use the kitchen bin, WVCR encourages them to reuse the bin for another use. Junk cubes cannot be returned, McConkey said.
“Some people are using them for crayon buckets,” McCronkey added. “One person donated his to his church.”