Village of Rhinebeck launches free municipal composting
The Village of Rhinebeck announces the opening of pre-registration for its municipal food waste diversion program, Village Compost. Participants must be residents of the Village of Rhinebeck. They will drop their food scraps at a centralized collection spot and the food scraps will be hauled to a local farm for composting. The program is free of cost because the Village government received a Department of Environmental Conservation grant. A portion of the finished nutrient-rich compost will be made available to participants each spring.
Village residents interested in participating must register via an online form at www.rhinebeckcompost.org Registered participants will be offered a complimentary lidded bucket in which to collect their food scraps and a quick training (yes, you can include meat, bones, and dairy—coffee grounds too!). Participants will drop their food scraps at any time in a centralized collection dumpster in the municipal parking lot. The collection dumpster will be locked to deter critters and litterbugs. Registered participants will receive a code to unlock the dumpster. The program will launch in the New Year.
Village Compost’s goal to provide easy and free access to food waste diversion is in line with the Village’s Climate Action Plan and its recently adopted Comprehensive Plan. Food waste emits methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, when sequestered in landfills, whereas composting net sequesters carbon in the soil. Composting is important because it builds healthy ecosystems—enhancing the landscape’s ability to absorb stormwater and promoting biodiversity at a microscopic level. “Composting turns waste into a renewable resource, and with our subcontractor, Ellerslie Stables, we are keeping this resource local,” states Village Board Trustee Vanessa Bertozzi, who heads up the project.
Bertozzi is referring to the 30-stall horse barn owned by Michael DeCola in Rhinecliff. “Michael is already composting horse manure on his farm, and the addition of food scraps will make the end product even better,” adds Bertozzi. The $200,000 DEC grant pays for improvements to DeCola’s existing compost operation, as well as the purchase of the specialized dumpster compatible with DeCola’s hooklift truck. As part of the agreement, DeCola will bring the dumpster once a week to his farm and dump the food scraps into the mix of wood chips, manure, and shavings. The term of the project is 7 years.
Many local establishments already have commercial contracts with Red Hook-based business, The O Zone, which handles curbside pick up for clients such as Terrapin, Aba’s, Samuel’s, Sunflower, and Market St. The O Zone also provides this service to the condo HOAs at The Woods and The Gardens.
Village Compost is organized by Climate Smart Rhinebeck, a task force of volunteers working with Bertozzi. They leaned on their longstanding enthusiasm for compost: they have been working on the project for years. “It’s about cutting down on waste. The average American household’s garbage contains about 30% compostable material,” notes Mary Burns, member of the Task Force, citing a feasibility study the team did with RIT’s Pollution Prevention Institute (P2i) in 2021.
More info: www.rhinebeckcompost.org
To go directly to the form and sign up go to: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=BFFX80RoikqMpLDj0_YZ7VJs1ywvQCZEvOKjT81Y2VhUN0dUVzNUVThTTklPVDFPOUNEUkJVQVZNSC4u
Village Trustee, Vanessa Bertozzi trusteebertozzi@villageofrhinebeckny.gov