Page 10 - Everyday Kitsap 2019

WASTE WISE

The Mummy’s Curse

What you find in the landfill might scare you

In the 1970s, American professor curbside compost collection for their Do you live in a multifamily apartment
William Rathje and his students dug single-family home. The current cost is or condo? The rules are a bit different
into landfills to study the garbage our around $8 per month. Simply put your for these commercial properties.
society creates. “The Garbage Project” food scraps and yard waste into the Property owners or managers can
discovered something surprising: provided cart and your waste hauler contact private waste haulers to ask
will take it to a local, privately-owned about curbside compost services.
Landfills “mummify” food composting facility.
Even after 25 years in a landfill, a head Backyard or Drop-Off
of lettuce still looks like a head of Visit kcowa.us/curbside and type your Composting
lettuce! There is not enough oxygen address into the composting map tool to
inside a landfill for composting bacteria see if your single-family home is eligible You can compost without curbside
to survive, so food remains largely for this service. service! Take your yard waste to a local
intact taking up space and releasing composting business or compost at
greenhouse gases. Not in the service area? home with a backyard pile or worm
In 2016, Washington’s Department of 35% of single-family homes are not in compost bin. Visit Recycle.KitsapGov.
com for composting resources.
Ecology did their own garbage study, the current service area for curbside
and they even came to Kitsap County to composting. We want to change this,
sort and weigh our waste. They learned: but we need your help. Let us know Already have yard waste
you’re interested in seeing the service service?
• Non-edible food (like banana area expand to your neighborhood!
peels) is the #1 item we throw You can include food scraps in
away at home. Visit kcowa.us/curbside, type your your yard waste cart, even if it is
address into the composting map tool, labeled “YARD WASTE ONLY.”
• Yard waste (leaves, grass, and complete the form. This data helps
branches) is the #2 item we throw us measure demand and plan for the Visit kcowa.us/includethefood to
away at home. future of Kitsap’s composting services. learn which food items can go in!
• Around 42% of our household
trash is material that could have
been composted.
Spooky! Even worse, Kitsap County
doesn’t have working landfills. Our
garbage must travel 300 miles by train
to a landfill in Arlington, Oregon. Food
and yard waste are full of water, so
they’re heavy and bulky. We use a lot of
energy to move this waste to the landfill
and it takes up a lot of space once there.

Start Composting Today
Curbside compost service makes
composting easy.

Most people in Kitsap County can get

pg 10 | Spring 2019 | KitsapGov.com