The Rap on Food Scraps

When Mill Valley Refuse Managing Partner Jim Iavarone began his outreach in April to launch a compost program in Mill Valley and its surrounding areas, he expected a slam dunk.

He got a decidedly different reaction.

"I thought I was coming late to the game and would hear, 'finally, you're offering this service,'" he said. "But it was the opposite. It was strange. It was not the overjoyed reaction I expected. We got caught flat-footed by that, and we had to scramble a bit to get everybody's attention."

With help from some local compost advocates and Mill Valley Sustainability Director Carol Misseldine, the company stepped up its outreach, eventually winning support from all but one government agency, with Almonte Sanitary District declining to participate.

But as the company begins its weekly compost pickup Monday, Iavarone has tepid expectations for winning the hearts and minds – and food scraps - of his customers.

"Our trucks will roll out and they'll pick up what they see, but beyond that I'm not sure what to expect," he said. "I honestly don't expect to see a lot of participation right away. Hopefully as kids go back to school and people settle into more of a routine, we'll see it pick up."

Compost pickup doesn't require a new bin, as customers can simply add their food waste to the same green can where they put yard waste. Appropriate food waste includes vegetable and fruit scraps, meat, bones and food-soiled paper and excludes glass, plastic, metal, foam, liquids, waxed cardboard, pet waste, or diapers.

The food waste service is limited to residences and commercial buildings, and supermarkets and restaurants aren't eligible, at least for now. Mill Valley Refuse serves approximately 14,000 households in Mill Valley, Corte Madera, Tiburon, Belvedere and surrounding unincorporated areas.

Iavarone has heard a number of objections to the food waste service so far.

The average $3 per month additional cost is too much for some customers. But Iavarone said customers can offset the charge by downsizing their trash can from a 45 gallon to a 32 gallon since those cans won't be used for food waste any longer.

Some people are concerned that the presence of food scraps in their green bins will attract rodents and other animals. Others are simply uninterested in handling their food waste.

"There's a certain 'ick' factor associated with composting," said Misseldine, who led a June 29 educational seminar on composting that drew about 50 residents.

Mill Valley Refuse decided not to provide smaller receptacles for people to put their food scraps in the kitchen before taking them outside to the green can. Iavarone said it was a conscious move in an effort to adhere to the county's Zero Waste initiative by not manufacturing more plastic bins that would eventually be destined for a landfill.

"We thought that it would be more in the spirit of zero waste when everybody already has some kind of container in their house they can use," he said.

He noted the recent move by Sunset Scavenger Co. in San Francisco to replace its kitchen receptacles with sleeker models laden with decals showing customers what items to compost.

"Their first try didn't work, so they created a whole lot of garbage to do it over again," he said.

Almonte Sanitary District Board Treasurer Lew Kious said his constituents simply weren't interested in the service enough to justify the additional charge.

"It does not seem to be a program that has any measurable amount of support among Almonte residents," Kious said. "There has yet to be anybody show up at our board meetings and say they wanted the program. Everybody on our board supports the idea of composting, but the way the program is in our community, it doesn't seem like something that would justify the cost."

"I have some sympathy for them," Iavarone said of the Almonte board. "They went first. I have a feeling that if they had come further along in the process, they would have seen everybody else on board and probably followed suit."

Iavarone said that beyond the vocal advocates for or against composting, "There is this whole mass of people in the middle, and it will be something that just grows on people as they start to figure how they'll use this program. It's going to be a learning experience and there will be challenges in there. I'm hoping that once we get into it for a while, people will begin thinking of it as recycling."

Mill Valley will hold another compost seminar on Sept. 21 at 7pm in City Council chambers at City Hall. See the city's Web site for more details.