The City of Fayetteville and Ozark Compost and Swap are extending their city composting pilot program through the end of the year. So far, nearly 500 people have participated, with a retention rate of about 37 percent.
Faebyan Shields is an environmental educator for the city. She says a selling point is that the first month is free.
"To just give it a try to see what they thought," Shields said. "And then from then on, we’ve had more and more people try out the program. They were very excited about it. I think the customer service was great. The fact that people didn’t have to wash out their bucket was great, and that they had constant customer service updates from Ozark Compost and Swap about when their pickup was going to be or if any changes had come up.”
The program began earlier this year as a public-private partnership with the city and Ozark Compost and Swap. Fayetteville residents apply to join the program, and once they’re accepted, they receive a 5-gallon bucket to collect their food waste. Ozark Compost does curbside pickup every two weeks and returns with a clean bucket.
Shields said the feedback from residents was amazing.
“It’s been an awesome cooperative agreement, and having people be excited about taking their food waste to their doorstep is kind of one of those like, never thought people would get excited about something like that. But the feedback has all been super positive. Like I said, customer service has been great with Compost and they have had all their questions answered immediately, like, can I put this paper towel in there or is it an avocado seed compostable? So they’re able to have just this constant conversation with Ozark Compost and making sure that their needs are met.”
To be clear, paper towels are typically compostable, and so are avocado pits.
A recent audit of Fayetteville’s trash was conducted, and it shows that about 20 percent of the items are food or food waste.
“Which is like in my brain, like, okay, that seems like an easy target to get out of the landfill," Shields said. "And so we’ve had about 11.5 tons that have been diverted just from the first part of the pilot, which honestly is a significant decrease going to the landfill, even though it was just like a smaller pod of humans doing it. So if everybody thinks about how their own impact can actually make a big difference. I think we averaged 19.5 for every pickup when they pick up twice. So we’re seeing about 40 pounds from each family, each household.”
The compost is collected and checked for possible contamination by Ozark Compost and Swap. From there it’s brought to the compost and mulch facility off Armstrong Avenue.
“And it’s one of those like nobody sees the magic happen," Shields said. "But it’s so magical because inside there is all these microbes, fungus, that are having this huge party and breaking down the food waste into what is known as compost.”
That compost is bought and used by local farmers, gardeners and even people outside of Fayetteville for less than $50 for 2.5 cubic yards.
“It’s about a regular-sized pickup bed that’s like mounded over like a big snow cone," Shields said. "And that’s, yeah, quite a bit.”
Although the city is extending the pilot program through the end of the year, the same process to apply to be part of the program remains. One group of residents who are still unable to participate: those who live in multifamily housing. Shields said the teams are working together to come up with strategies on how to serve those people in the future.
“So some places are going to be super easy to service because maybe they have a valet service already. The units are on the first floor, or maybe even there’s just only a second floor. So navigating the logistics of that side of it. And then we’re also working with properties that may not have those same ease of collection to figure out what we can place on site.
“So there’s been some brainstorming of what does it look like to put like a cubby with the little boxes in it where people can, you know, so a lot of just brainstorming on these different places and how they operate and how Ozark Compost can go in and make sure they collect the buckets and leave the clean bucket in place.”
She understands that convincing people to compost might be a hard sell.
“Getting people excited about not putting their food waste in the trash is not on everybody’s dance card," Shields said. "People that are curious seem to be the ones that are most interested. So I think that we invite people to be curious about what the difference would be.
“So maybe you’ve always thrown away your coffee grounds. And maybe what if I just started with my coffee grounds, taking those out of my waste stream and trying out the doorstep pickup and then realizing that you have so much more power and control of your waste stream and where everything goes, and then trying to be excited or curious about something else.”
Shields said the magic number for the city seems to be around 1,000 residents participating in the program.
“It’s a marker of volume to decrease the cost. So we are hoping that with enough volume, which 1,000 seems to be the number we’ve been looking at, we can reduce what the current cost is for folks.”
If you live in housing that’s not eligible for the program or you’re still on the fence about participating, the city has another option for you. There are three locked and secured food waste drop-off containers around Fayetteville: one at the public library, one at Bryce Davis Park, and a third at Veterans Memorial Park.
“Where it’s got this cute little keypad," Shields said. "And you can either call the phone number on the side of the bin to get the information about what goes in the bin, and then you get a code so that you can put your food waste in. Or you can go on our webpage and fill out the form. It’s the same stuff of just letting you know, this is for food waste, not for landfill trash. And then you can use one of these new cool drop-offs, which we’re kind of hoping go really well so we can expand, not to just more parks, but having more areas in the city that have these drop-off locations.”
For more details on the pilot program or drop-off locations, you can visit the city of Fayetteville's website.
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