Food Recycling Made Easy!
As a resident of Winslow, my town’s free food recycling bins are located at 136 Halifax St. in Winslow, and I participate in one of the Mitchell Center’s town food recycling pilots! I’m here to show you how easy it is to recycle your food by walking you through my own food recycling routine.
Step 1: Pick Your Compost Bins
First, I set aside two 5-gallon buckets (with lids) to collect my food scraps in. For my household of four, we fill and empty these buckets every 4-5 days. You can also keep more than two buckets for food scraps to minimize trips to the transfer station. Since I keep my compost bins in the garage, I use lidded buckets to keep any odors in and unwelcome visitors out.
Pro tip: You can also freeze your food scraps to minimize trips to the food recycling site – this makes Maine winter time food recycling even easier to do! For more great food recycling tips and information, click here.
Step 2: Collect Your Food Waste
Keep a bowl on your countertop to put food scraps in while you’re cooking. While I made myself a salad for lunch today, I put my scraps into a small kitchen bowl. Once I finished cooking and collected all of my food scraps, I emptied the small bowl into my 5-gallon bucket in the garage. This is the process that works for my household, but you could certainly keep your collection bucket on your kitchen countertop for a more direct approach.
Step 3: Bring Your Food Waste to the Transfer Station
Time to bring my buckets to the food recycling site! My liner-free 5-gallon bucket is shown in the far right photo above. My house is only a 5 minute drive to the food collection site in Winslow, which is located conveniently at the Winslow Public Library parking lot. This is a very central location, and only a short drive away for residents of Winslow. Click here to find out where you can bring food waste for recycling or donation in your area.
Once I arrived, I flipped open the top of a green collection tote and emptied all of my food scraps into the tote. While a special liner is used in these green totes, liners should not be used in your food recycling process. These liners shown in the green totes are for the convenience of Agricycle and will NOT go into the food recycling process.
These totes are collected by Agricycle on Thursdays, so when I go on Wednesday it’s exciting to see how much food waste is collected and money is being saved through everyone recycling their food scraps. Our town just started and has already gone from filling two totes to three. Tell your family and friends to join us! The more we reduce and recycle our food waste, the more we save…and protect our Maine land and water. To find out what you can compost at home, click here.
Step 4: Clean and Repeat
Rinse the food waste buckets. When I return home I usually use the garden hose to spray out both 5-gallon buckets before returning them to the garage. You can also rinse your bucket out in the sink or with a soapy dish rag.
Common FAQs:
Now to help you start your own food recycling journey, I’ve answered some frequently asked questions below. But if you have any other questions or need help getting started, please reach out to me or another member of the Mitchell Center team.
Q: Do the food buckets get smelly between visits to the town food collection site?
A: Keeping a lid on your food waste bucket will mitigate any smell there might be. You can also choose to freeze your food scraps between visits to the town food collection site. Putting sawdust in the bottom of your buckets is an organic way to keep things fresh and easy to clean. This sawdust is also great for compost material! Do not use any paper or plastic bags to line your bin, because they cannot be put into the green food recycling bins. No plastic or chemical substances should end up in compost! Finally, be sure to rinse your bucket thoroughly with water after emptying it at the town food collection site.
Q: What can I put in the green food recycling bins?
A: Anything that’s food! A sign is posted at the town food recycling site to indicate what can go in the bins. As a general rule, if it’s food, it can go in the bin, and if it’s not, then it cannot go in the bin. For example, you can put your Halloween pumpkins, fruit and vegetable scraps, flowers, and all of your meats/bones in the bins. You cannot put plastic bags, to-go food containers, bottles, napkins, or straws in the bins- even if they are biodegradable!
Q: Why can’t compostable ware go into the food recycling bin?
A: Many pieces of compostable ware cannot be composted due to harmful microplastics. These microplastics affect soil health and cause harmful effects when we grow our food in that contaminated soil. For more information on microplastics in compost, please click here.
Q: What if my community does not have a free drop-off site?
A: Try at-home composting! To find out what you can compost at home, click here. Suggest to your town to set up a drop-off site and contact the Mitchell Center for help in doing so. It’s a great way to help the environment AND help your town save money!
Q: Is this a messy process?
A: It doesn’t have to be! Keeping a lid on your bucket helps immensely with this and making sure to wash your bucket between visits. If you don’t want to wash your bucket between visits, you can also line your bucket with a trash bag. Remember, trash bags cannot be put into the green food recycling totes at the town food recycling site. Only food belongs in the green totes!
If you have unexpired and uneaten food that can be donated, consider visiting Food Pantries.org to find a food pantry near you. Now that you know how easy it is, I hope to see you all at the Mitchell Center Town Food Recycling Sites soon!
And always remember- Maine food is too good to waste.
—- Hannah Crayton, Senior at Thomas College majoring in Environmental Science and Policy and Student Intern for Food Waste Projects.
