Plan to manage food waste still in works
Mayor Steve Noble says the program, which may include composting, will likely take two years to realize
Five months ago, Mayor Steve Noble announced that $63,000 in state funding would go toward creating a food waste management plan.
The plan, he said, might include composting, which he pitched during his 2015 campaign for mayor.
But while work is being done to create what is known as the Kingston Organic Waste Management Plan, it will likely take two years to realize, Noble said this week.
“From contracting to wrap-up as submitted in the grant application will take two years to complete,” Noble said in an email.
“The city is finalizing the work plan and budget with (the state) which they will include in the contract to be approved by all parties ... this grant involves a number of different agencies, but the Hudson Valley Regional Council will be the lead consultant.”
Noble said other groups involved in developing the plan include he Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency, the Ulster County Department of the Environment, Climate Smart Kingston Commission and the Kingston Conservation Advisory Council.
In December, the city announced it had secured a grant of nearly $63,000 to develop a program to manage food waste, including the possibility of composting.
Noble, who has often spoken in support of a citywide composting program, said at the time that
the $62,960 grant from the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Climate Smart Communities Implementation Program would be used to create the Kingston Organic Waste Management Plan.
According to a press release, the organic waste management plan would include a waste management strategy for government hosted/permitted events; organics collection and composting in government buildings; a government waste audit and diversion tracking; a compost bin distribution plan; and a determination of the feasibility of an organics collection program for both residential and commercial properties. Three years ago, as he ran for mayor, Noble proposed starting a citywide composting program.
In March 2017, Noble said the idea remained on his to-do list but was not likely to be implemented anytime soon.
Noble has said a composting program could include the distribution of a third tote, perhaps green, to be used by city residents to dispose of food waste at curbside.
Brown totes that many city residents have are for putting trash at curbside for pickup, and blue totes are used for recyclables.
The mayor said the cost of disposing food waste could be cut sharply through composting — perhaps by as much as 80 percent.
He said the city currently spends about $800,000 per year for waste disposal.