According to a report from the
Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, Philadelphia spends over $6 million per year transporting and dumping our wasted or uneaten food into landfills. Why can't we be more like Austin or New York City, which already have food waste recycling programs?
Councilwoman Cindy Bass, of Philadelphia’s 8th District, wants to get the ball rolling.
"It’s probably easier to refer to it as composting. The ‘food waste’ thing hasn’t really caught on," says Elliot Griffin, a spokesperson for the Councilwoman, referring to a recent City Council hearing on the feasibility of a city-wide food waste recycling program.
Participants in the November 12 hearing included representatives from the City’s
Committee on Streets and Services and
Committee on the Environment, alongside composting experts from groups including the
U.S. Composting Council's
Institute for Local Self Reliance and
RecycleNow Philadelphia.
The administration testified that the estimated cost of launching a city-wide composting program, including street pick-up of compostable materials -- and a composting center to handle a city-sized mound of nature’s recycling -- could cost $37 million.
"We’re not exactly in a position to start that today," explains Griffin, but the point of the hearing, which she says was well-attended especially by supporters from Philly’s Northwest neighborhoods, was to help people realize that such a program could be feasible.
According to Griffin, Councilwoman Bass first got inspired on Philly’s composting potential when she read a spring 2014 article in the
New York Times about comparable American cities that have already started these initiatives. At the hearing, the biggest surprise was how many locals, from restaurant owners to ordinary citizens to organizations like
Weavers Way Co-Op, are already composting on their own.
“We recognize that we have to start the conversation now,” says Griffin, so the next generation can keep the momentum going and make wide-spread composting a reality, benefiting the environment, saving energy and creating jobs.
The construction of an organic recycling center and the jobs created for those who would manage it is "something that could benefit the whole Delaware Valley," adds Griffin.
Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Elliot Griffin, office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass