Webinar Resources: Innovative Residential Food Scrap Collection — Large and Small Cities

On Thursday, November 1st, ILSR hosted a webinar featuring two cities – large and small – with very different residential food waste collection and composting programs: San Francisco and Falls Church, Va. View the recording here!

San Francisco (pop. 884,000) has one of the longest-standing programs in the country, with mandatory recycling citywide. Alexa Kielty will focus on the City’s efforts to increase participation in apartments and with non-English speaking communities.

Falls Church (pop. 14,000) is a much newer program that started in 2015 with residential food scraps at a local farmers market. Based on demand, the City opened a permanent drop-off site a year later, operated under contract with a veteran-run enterprise. In 2017, it was able to start curbside collection without increasing solid waste costs through an innovative arrangement with another local private composter. Chris McGough will share details on Falls Church’s new program and its innovative methods for keeping costs low.

These communities are only two of more than 320 that offer curbside collection of food scraps. To learn about other government-supported programs, see BioCycle’s Residential Food Waste Collection Access In The U.S.

This webinar is one in a series we offer to to share working models and tips for replication. View our webinar resources.

Watch the recording of the webinar to learn more!

Presenters

Alexa Kielty

Residential Zero Waste and Special Projects Assistant
San Francisco, Calif.

Alexa Kielty is a Zero Waste Specialist at San Francisco Department of the Environment, working on zero waste since 2001. She has designed and executed San Francisco’s apartment food scrap composting collection program, implemented residentially San Francisco’s Mandatory Recycling and Composting Ordinance and developed San Francisco’s zero waste special event program and outreach strategy. Download her presentation here.

Chris McGough

Solid Waste & Recycling Coordinator
Falls Church, Va.

Chris McGough is the Solid Waste and Recycling Coordinator with the City of Falls Church, Virginia. He helped Falls Church launch Virginia’s first curbside food waste collection program as well as a popular food waste drop-off facility and farmer’s market collection station. Chris’ efforts help Falls Church maintain one of the highest recycling rates in Virginia. Chris has a Masters in Environmental Science and Policy from George Mason University and has spent the last decade advancing environmental issues with Fairfax County and currently the City of Falls Church. Download his presentation here.

Facilitator

Brenda Platt

Composting for Community Initiative Director, ILSR
Washington, D.C.

Brenda Platt is the co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. She has worked 30 years fighting trash burners and promoting waste reduction, recycling and composting, particularly recycling-based jobs. She currently directs ILSR’s Composting for Community projects, which advances locally based composting in order to create jobs, enhance soils, sequester carbon, reduce waste, and build more resilient and healthy communities.