Banana peels, eggshells, citrus peels, and other food scraps don鈥檛 have to go in your trash. The Greater New Bedford Regional Refuse Management District announces an exciting partnership with Food Cycle Science to pilot an in-home food waste diversion solution that will reduce the amount of food waste headed to the Crapo Hill landfill.
A FoodCycler is a small appliance about the size of a coffee machine or home bread machine. They are manufactured by Food Cycle Science. Food waste, such as apple cores, eggshells, meat, and leftovers are placed in it, and within hours, it turns the waste into a dry, nutrient-rich end-product, which can be added to 20 parts soil as an amendment, dropped off at your recycling center or transfer station, or added to a backyard compost bin to further break down. It reduces the volume of food waste by up to 90%. Food Cycle Science estimates that depending on your electricity rate, using the FoodCycler regularly should cost no more than $2-4 per month for electricity.
In this pilot program, residents will test the FoodCycler in their homes over a 12-week period. Each resident will track the number of cycles they run to estimate the total impact of the pilot program. The FoodCycler is yours to keep after the pilot so you can continue to enjoy reducing food waste to a small amount of dry soil amendment.
You can add almost any type of food waste, from stubborn oyster shells to smelly onion skins. Examples of what can go in the FoodCycler include fruit and veggie scraps, beans, seeds, legumes, meat, fish (including small bones), poultry, eggs, eggshells, shellfish (including shells), coffee grounds, and tea leaves. The grinding system breaks down even the toughest food waste in just a few hours.
The resulting end-product of the FoodCycler is a dry, odorless, nutrient-rich Foodilizer鈩� for your plants. You can add the end-product to a backyard compost bin and allow it the time to become stable compost. Or you can mix the end-product with 20 parts soil and add it to your garden. Food Cycle Science recommends mixing your Foodilizer鈩� with the soil 4-6 weeks prior to planting seeds or transplanting plants. This allows the end-product to break down and properly nourish the soil. Alternatively, you can store the end-product in a container, keep it dry, and drop it off at your transfer station or recycling center. The FoodCycler end-product goes in the carts that are for food waste. Depending on the size of your container, you could drop off the end-product at your transfer station or recycling center only a few times throughout the year.
This pilot program will help residents to keep food waste out of the trash. Around 20% of what New Bedford and Dartmouth residents place in the trash is food waste. This food waste is disposed of at the Crapo Hill landfill, our local disposal site. Crapo Hill is a fully lined landfill that has been serving New Bedford and Dartmouth since 1995. We estimate that New Bedford and Dartmouth have saved over $75 million in disposal costs since Crapo Hill opened.
鈥淚t is important to do all that we can to reduce the amount of waste being produced and to reuse materials that still have value. The FoodCycler makes it more convenient for residents to return the nutrients from food scraps back to the soil,鈥� said Anthony Novelli, Executive Director of the Greater New Bedford Regional Refuse Management District.