Halloween pumpkins may make the season eerily delightful, but tossing that jack-o’-lantern after the trick-or-treating can feel wasteful.
Montgomery County, Maryland, has a solution: Offering free drop-offs for food scraps at three local farmers markets.
The county already has some composting programs, but this new effort means residents don’t have to keep a compost container on their property, and can off-load their scraps while visiting their local farmers markets.
The food scraps recycling program has drop-off locations at the Bethesda Central Farmers Market on Sundays, the Downtown Silver Spring Market on Saturdays as well as the Olney Farmers and Artists Market on Sundays. The drop-off is available on a year-round basis at those three locations.
In a news release announcing the kickoff of the drop-off program, county executive Marc Elrich stated, “We’re making it easier for residents to compost and support our zero-waste goals.”
Jon Monger, director of the county’s department of environmental protection, said when trying to decide what food scraps can be recycled, “Think about your own kitchen table, and what you have left over after a meal.”
Many of those items don’t have to go into the trash and can be recycled in the drop-off program.
Monger told WTOP that many items, including bread and grains, cooked food, dairy products like cheese and yogurt, eggshells, fruit and vegetable scraps and even meat, fish and bones, can be recycled.
Coffee grounds and tea leaves make excellent compost materials as well.
“Just make sure you don’t bring your filters” when adding coffee grounds or the contents of tea bags to the food scrap container, he said.
Monger explained the scraps are processed at a compost processing facility in Prince George’s County.
“But we’re looking to build a similar facility here in Montgomery County so we can process it here ourselves,” he said. “(The compost) creates a really nutrient-rich soil amendment that’s really beneficial for soil health.”
Items that should not be added to the food scrap recycling stream include yard trimmings, pizza boxes or other paper products.
Please don’t toss pet waste into the mix; Monger said, “I think some of those go without saying.”
While Monger’s always eager to remind people of the environmental benefits of composting, he said residents who start separating food scraps from their trash cans may be pleasantly surprised by the how much less trash is generated.
“It’s incredible how much of our trash as consumers can end up being food scraps,” he said.
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