About 130聽West Hartford聽homeowners are taking part in a 15-week experiment to see if average families can help change the depressing statistic that more than 20 percent of all American trash is food waste that is thrown out and burned or buried.
Participating residents are separating the coffee grounds, bones, egg shells, cooking oils, old pasta, stale bread and all the other organic food waste they would normally throw out as garbage. They put it in an odor-resistant, dishwasher-safe kitchen 鈥渃addies,鈥� and dump that into special brown bins that are taken to the curb every Thursday.
A garbage truck then picks up the food waste and transports it to a聽recycling center in Southington that turns the organic garbage into methane and the methane into electricity.
If this new-wave recycling system can be made to work in West Hartford, it might provide a model that could be used in municipalities all across Connecticut. The trouble is that a similar test carried out two years ago in Bridgewater never quite worked out the way organizers hoped.
West Hartford officials are taking a cautious approach to the food waste recycling experiment that was launched Oct. 5. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just a test program,鈥� said John Phillips, the city鈥檚 public works director.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an ambitious venture,鈥� Phillips said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to take a willing heart.鈥�
Phillips said he is definitely worried that the same old-school attitudes that caused problems for Bridgewater鈥檚 food waste recycling effort could be replicated in West Hartford.
鈥淲hen it comes to garbage, people want to throw it all in one pile and have it go away for free,鈥� Phillips said. 鈥淧eople get offended when you say they have to pay for it.鈥�
This new trial is a combined effort involving the city; the food-waste-to-energy operation in Southington, Quantum Biopower; West Hartford鈥檚 waste contractor, Covanta; and the garbage hauling company, Paines, Inc. For this preliminary test, all the equipment, transportation and recycling are being paid for by the three companies at no charge to participants or the city.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been preparing for it for the last few months,鈥� Phillips said of the test program that is currently scheduled to run through Jan. 4, 2018.
The volunteer homeowners were recruited from a few blocks bounded by Mountain Road, South Main Street, Sedgewick and Fern Streets, Phillips said, explaining the area was chosen to make the food waste pick up as simple as possible.
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