“We’ve been getting feedback from people I want to say as far back as 2017, 2018, people were like, “When are you guys going to start doing organics and taking food scraps?’ So, I think the demand has been there.”
Public Works Manager Bob Swain says the launch of the new Renew Grand Rapids pilot program will make recycling food scraps easier with seven composting bins throughout three city wards.
“Hoping to get about 500 people signed up for it. Right now, we’re about 300 already signed up, so we want to get an action call to everybody else. We need at least 200 more people and then we want to expand from there.”
After signing up online, residents can drop off their food scraps inside one of the seven composting bins that can be unlocked with an app or a four-digit code. The bins are emptied once a week and taken to the city’s composting site where the scraps are turned into nutrient-rich soil. That soil is then brought back to city parks and community gardens.
“Ideally, we can get a thousand to two-thousand people and we would add more bin locations. We would also look at maybe doing some commercial material eventually, working with some restaurants or some of the local breweries and getting some of their back-of-house material, too.”
Funding for the program comes from state grants and the city’s refuse fund.
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