State Compost Programs Plow Ahead

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

PROVIDENCE — A food-scrap to compost-collection program is moving ahead on many fronts for Rhode Island.

The Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation board of directors recently approved the lease of land at the Central Landfill in Johnston for a 150-ton food digester. Under the agreement, the developer, Orbit Energy Inc., must break ground on the project by the end of the year so that the project is up and running by October 2012.

Orbit Energy, based in North Carolina, also recently reached a power-purchasing agreement with National Grid to buy the electricity generated for the burning of the bio-gas at the digester. The agreement is not expected to be official until the state Public Utilities Commission gives its stamp of approval.

The state Department of Environmental Management must also approve permits for the facility.

The Orbit project is one of some 15 proposal that have touted similar food composting programs for the state in recent years.

The food digester's 150-ton capacity may not be enough to handle the state's entire supply of some 250 tons of daily organic waste. So initiatives are moving ahead in Providence for a local composting program. A meeting this week with Matt Stark and Lyndsey Brickle of the mayor's office and DEM reported that efforts are under way for considering a composting facility run out of land owned by Johnson & Wales University nears its campus on Allens Avenue. As a culinary school Johnson & Wales has been looking for a solution to it vast amount of food waste.

Providence's Department of Public Works is looking at ways to start a pilot program for food scrap pick up at city schools and public housing projects. Private groups, such as one run by Matt Jennings of Farmstead restaurants, are organizing a local food waste collection program with a private waste hauler for other restaurants and grocery stores. 

At a June conference hosted by a Providence sustainable roundtable group, DPW officials from Cambridge, Mass discussed its successful food waste program. At the event, several businesses and schools that ship food waste out of state such as RISD, Brown University, GTech and Blue Cross have expressed interest in finding local solutions for creating compost from food waste.