Soon, Becker County will start recycling food waste. The idea behind organics recycling is to separate that food and paper waste from the trash and keep it out of the landfill. It will be taken to a compost facility where, after six to nine months, it will turn into usable compost 鈥� essentially sending the nutrients from the food back to the earth.
Pulling those heavy, wet organics out of the garbage stream can also lower hauling costs and even lower greenhouse gas emissions from landfills. Here are the top three reasons Becker County is getting into organics recycling, according to Environmental Services Director Steve Skoog:
- It鈥檚 environmentally preferred.
- Solid waste disposal costs keep going up.
- And about half the county鈥檚 garbage is burned in the twin incinerators at the Perham Resource Recovery Facility. Organics tend to be wet and not burn well, so they are largely removed at the Perham facility and shipped to North Dakota landfills in Fargo and Grand Forks. The stuff is heavy and costs more to haul, adding to overall costs.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not a good fuel,鈥� Skoog said, 鈥渟o if we can cut down on the number of times it鈥檚 hauled and handled, it saves money.鈥�