County Executive Joe Parisi announced in a recent press release that Dane County has been selected to receive a $400,000 grant to expand food waste composting availability to area residents. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced the launch of 38 cooperative agreements for its Compost and Food Waste Reduction program — investing approximately $11.5 million to support innovative, scalable waste management plans to reduce and divert food waste from landfills.
Dane County’s project will focus on expanding community drop-off kiosks for food waste, made possible by the increased capacity for food waste composting through the private-public-partnership recently announced between Dane County and Purple Cow Organics. The increase in composting will benefit regional greenhouse gas reduction goals, help save airspace in the Dane County landfill, and increase the health of local soils.
The county is also looking to collaborate with additional communities who may be interested in hosting a drop-off kiosk. The new kiosks will be strategically located throughout Dane County to give as many people as possible the opportunity to compost their food waste and will be designed to be engaging and multilingual.
Also included in the grant opportunity is funding for the Dane County Department of Waste & Renewables to increase education and outreach to local municipalities, businesses, and organizations to develop food waste solutions.
