The Bozeman Convenience Site is the product of the city鈥檚 new composting program. City crews collect the organic material curbside from customers, and the processing site is run by Happy Trash Can, a local business that has been composting for years through its pick-up services. With an aeration system that gets more airflow into the piles to compost them faster, the organic matter is broken down then used by local farms, gardeners and landscapers.
For $10 a month, customers can sign up for weekly pickup, which provides them with a kitchen pail for food scraps and a beige tote to put curbside. With the help of a federal grant, the program has been up and running for about two months, said Nick Ross, the city鈥檚 director of transportation and engineering. About 1,100 people have signed up.
The city has 13,000 waste pick-up customers, about half of whom are recycling customers. Ross said the goal is to have about the same number of composting and recycling customers. Ross said they expect to divert 2,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the landfill each year.