Riverhead food scraps composting pilot program successful, organizers say

A pilot program launched this year in the Calverton area of the Town of Riverhead that collects food scraps from households to turn into compost has exceeded expectations by pulling more than 1.6 tons of food scraps so far from the local solid waste stream, according to organizers.

That amount pulled through the “Food Scraps-to-Compost” program means that 3.2 tons of methane was prevented from being produced because of local waste, according to Mark Haubner, co-chairman of Riverhead’s Environmental Advisory Committee.

Haubner told Newsday the results of the program — taken over three months this year starting in July — has so far “wildly exceeded” his expectations.

“Americans waste 30% of the food out of their fridge. If you go through the Peconic bioregion, we’ve got 160,000 people in five towns. That’s 40 tons a day [of food scraps produced]. It adds up times 365 days a year. We’re going after the first 40 tons, which is residential. That has the biggest impact,” Haubner said.

The program so far has 12 participating Calverton residential homes, two farms and three downtown restaurants, with the town’s Engineering Department picking up food scraps collected from residential curbsides or trash collection points, according to Haubner. The scraps are then taken to two local agricultural sites — the Roanoke Lavender Farm and Cornell University's Long Island Horticultural Research and Extension Center — where they are reused to make compost for soil. The committee is working in collaboration with the North Fork Environmental Council and civic groups such as the Greater Calverton Civic Association.

Haubner said the plan is to eventually try and bring such a program not just to more communities in Riverhead, whose 36,000 residents create an estimate of 9 tons of food scraps daily, but to other East End towns as well.

As part of that effort, Haubner says the program will eventually be brought before New York State Climate Smart Communities, a state program that provides grant funding to assist New York municipalities in acting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Such funding would help grow the food scraps program through education and community outreach.

Mark Bridgen, a professor at Cornell University’s Long Island Horticultural Research & Extension Center, said educating homeowners on how they can contribute to cutting the trash stream through something they can do at home is key for the program’s success.

“I think people have to be on board for this project … sometimes you have to convince people to look at the bigger picture,” Bridgen said.

Toqui Terchun, president of the Greater Calverton Civic Association, said the program not only removes food scraps from the trash stream but also enriches soil at local farms, which helps local farmers save money on compost.

“Farmers have to buy compost to get it trucked here. Now that truck won’t have to spend energy to get here, nor will the farmers have to spend that kind of money to bring it here because we’re utilizing what we have. That’s a total win-win,” Terchun said.