Arlington residents who want to compost their food waste instead of sending it to the landfill will soon have even more options.
The current 14 food disposal bins located in high-density areas of the county will expand to 24 by the end of the year — in part due to “a lot of positive feedback” since the initiative began last summer.
The program is aimed at the 89,000 households living in apartments and condominiums across the county.
Unlike residents of single-family homes, “multifamily [residents] really have few options when it comes to diverting food scraps,” said Douglas Krietemeyer, an environmental planner with the county.
About 21% of residents living in multifamily housing are within a 2.5-minute walk of one of the existing 14 bins, he said. That percentage should grow substantially when the new equipment is installed.
Krietemeyer discussed the program and other waste-disposal efforts at the May 19 meeting of the county’s Climate Change, Energy and Environment Committee. He said the new bins will be installed in late summer or autumn.
Between the initiative’s start in July 2024 and early May, more than 89,000 pounds of food material was placed in the bins. More than 2,000 people are participating in the app-driven initiative.
Monthly volume peaked in November at just under 12,000 pounds, declined until February and then began an upward swing again, Krietemeyer said. April’s total nearly matched the record set last November.
Half the 14 existing bins can be found in Ballston, with two in Rosslyn, two in National Landing and one each at sites located in Arlington Mill, S. Glebe Road and at Culpepper Garden.
Organic materials retrieved from the bins are taken to Shirlington, where they are composted into topsoil and mulch.
The initiative is one of several encouraging residents to reduce their food waste.
“There’s a lot happening,” said committee chair Cindy Lewin.
Keeping food scraps out of the trash stream is beneficial in several ways.
When food items are landfilled, decomposition creates methane and increases greenhouse gas emissions. When scraps are incinerated, which is the case with most trash in Arlington, they require more energy and take longer to burn because of their higher water content.
The effort to eradicate food scraps in trash will be a key component as the county government moves forward on creating a Climate Action Plan, Lewin said.
The Arlington government has nine requests of county residents in the effort to reduce food waste.
- Manage portion sizes
- Make a grocery list when shopping
- Only buy what is needed
- Compost food scraps
- Eat leftovers in a timely manner
- Understand date labels on packaging
- Freeze food to extend its life
- Consume fresh foods first
- Order out wisely
Those tips are included on posters found on Arlington Transit buses, in bus shelters, atop cabs and elsewhere throughout the county.
One outreach effort that didn’t meet expectations was a series of 20-to-30-second video advertisements that popped up on local residents’ streaming devices.
The digital ads, which ran from November through January, “had very little impact across the community,” Krietemeyer said.
Most people tuned them out, Krietemeyer said.
“They just kind of skip over it,” he said of the advertising.
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