Landfill Diversion
Compost Organic Waste
What Is It?
Composting is nature’s process of recycling organic materials into a rich soil. This process can be used to dispose of office food scraps and generate highly fertile soil. Compost bins designed specifically for the office environment can be placed in a kitchen or cafeteria. Alternatively, organic containers (e.g. paper bags) can be used to hold the food scraps until they’re transferred to a composting center.
Benefits
Composting organic materials from the office’s solid waste stream not only provides a valuable nutrient to soils, but also reduces the amount of waste that ends up in landfills and incinerators. In addition, composting also reducing the amount of solid waste from a business as well as the associated costs of disposal.
As of October 1, 2014, commercial organic material is banned from landfills in Massachusetts. This State law applies to all businesses and institutions in Massachusetts that dispose of one ton or more of food waste per week.
NEWS
- “State study: Food waste ban helps economy, but composting not addressed,” Telegram & Gazette, December 23, 2016
- “Massachusetts’ new composting rules: What they really mean,” Boston Globe, September 25, 2014
- “If You Want to Compost, Try Worms – Or a Pickup Service” Boston Globe, October 21, 2014
- “Massachusetts food waste to be composted, fed to microbes” Boston Globe, June 23, 2014
resources
- Massachusetts WasteWise Program
- MassDEP: Composting & Organics
- RecyclingWorks: Massachusetts Commercial Organics Waste Disposal Ban
- RecyclingWorks: Food Waste Estimation Guide
- City of Boston: Composting in Boston
a sample of Providers
- Bootstrap Compost Boston [organics only]
- Save That Stuff [multi-stream hauler]
- Cero [organics only]
- E.L. Harvey [multi-stream hauler]
- Casella [multi-stream hauler]
- Black Earth Composting [organics only]
