Vermont鈥檚 effort to move toward so-called universal recycling passed a major milestone last month, when transfer stations were required to begin accepting food scraps, grass clippings and other organic waste.
But even as the solid waste industry builds the infrastructure to handle organic waste, it remains to be seen whether Vermonters will make use of it before 2020, the year that Act 148, the universal recycling law, will require residents to separate out such waste.
In Hartford, those who go to the transfer station on Route 5 may notice a new bucket marked for food scraps at the scale house.
Bob Vahey, the town鈥檚 solid waste supervisor, said few people have taken advantage of the new service so far.
鈥淪ince July, if we鈥檝e had five people, we鈥檝e had a lot,鈥� Vahey said Monday.
Vahey said that before the July 1 deadline passed, he was laying plans to identify a hauler who would take the scraps to a composting facility, and to institute a fee structure that would cover those costs.
But so few people have been taking food waste to the transfer station, he said, that he鈥檚 simply carting it down to a compost pile on site, and has no immediate plans to impose a fee on users.
鈥淯ntil the population is required to do it full-blown in 2020, I don鈥檛 think we鈥檙e going to see a big change in it,鈥� Vahey said.
Mary O鈥橞rien, recycling coordinator with the Southern Windsor/Windham Counties Solid Waste Management District, said all five transfer stations in their network are complying with the requirement, but only one 鈥� Cavendish, which has been accepting food scraps for years 鈥� is seeing any sort of significant volume.
In Springfield, Weathersfield, Rockingham and Ludlow, the usage rates are comparable to what Vahey described in Hartford.
That doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean that people aren鈥檛 composting 鈥� they just might not be relying on transfer stations to do it for them.
O鈥橞rien said many people separate those food scraps out of the waste stream to compost at home.
鈥淲e鈥檙e really pushing backyard composting,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e had at least five workshops on backyard composting. In rural Vermont, that makes sense for a lot of people.鈥�
Other towns have found they don鈥檛 have to change anything to comply with the law 鈥� yet.
In Strafford, Recycling Committee Chairman Michael Scanlon said the town has taken advantage of a one-year deadline delay for haulers.
The Legislature amended the law earlier this year after private solid waste haulers said they needed more time before they could handle what amounts to a whole new parallel waste stream.
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