Think of fruit and vegetable scraps, dairy, meat, coffee grounds and tea bags, even some containers.
“In Michigan over 30% of the material that ends up in the landfill is made up of food waste so having the ability to divert this material is a huge opportunity for our community.”
Matt McPherson, Marketing and Communications Manager for the Department of Public Works, shared details of the drop-off program open to all Kent County residents by downloading the free metroKEY app and registering.
Residents bring food scraps to one of two current sites, then use the app to unlock the container and dump in their materials which will be picked up by Organicycle, a West Michigan company that will turn it into compost.
The county has containers at the Grand Rapids Recycling & Education Center on Wealthy and Rockford’s North Kent Center on 10 Mile with plans for more sites later.
Grand Rapids offers a similar program with drop-off containers across the city, says Public Works Director John Gorney.
“For the city of Grand Rapids alone we have 13,000 tons on an annual basis of what we would call either food scraps or material that is compostable going to the landfill or incinerator now. I don’t know if we’ll capture all 13,000 tons but that’s ultimately the goal. A little bit at a time.”
Residents can pick up a free composting bucket at the Wealthy Street Recycling & Education Center on Monday, April 27 while supplies last.
More information about the program, as well as details about sign-up and drop off, is available on the DPW’s website, along with a video demonstration on how to use the containers.
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