Letter: In Support Of Composting Food Waste
Compost from Martin's Farm in Greenfield. Photo: Martin's Farm Compost
The following letter was sent to the Amherst Town Council on May 14, 2023.
Please accept this message as a supportive note for all efforts to advance food waste composting for Amherst. Some reasons to offer are:
- Food waste is more bio-degradeable and therefore easier than other substances to recycle such as plastics.
- Food waste is 25% to 35% of our waste stream so any efforts to recycle are a major reduction in the total tonnage we dump into our earth through “Land Fills”
- Food waste generates methane which is a dangerous gas we need to minimize and eliminate.
- Amherst generates food waste in the thousands of tons. Do we even know our actual tonnage amounts year over year? Many towns in MA do cite these stats.
- Communities across New York State have been operating advanced recycling programs since the 1990’s so Massachusetts is decades BEHIND.
- Does Amherst have a reclamation percentage to cite? Westchester County, New York is 55% to 60%.
Terry Masterson
Terry Masterson is the former Deputy Mayor of Irvington, NY and a resident of Amherst.