Plastic-bag ban, food-waste law require new routines at the checkout, in the kitchen

July 3, 2020  |  By Indigo Glaza

Sign at the Village Market explains the new bag policy to shoppers. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti

July 1 ushered in some new state environmental laws that have Vermonters shifting habits and routines around grocery shopping and handling food waste at home. 

The ban on plastic bags passed by the state Legislature in 2019 went into effect this week along with the final piece of the state’s 2012 Universal Recycling law forbidding food waste from going into landfills. 

The bag ban comes as shoppers have been forbidden from bringing their own reusable bags to grocery stores due to public health concerns around the COVID-19 virus. Shoppers have had to use new paper or plastic bags at the checkout. 

At the Village Market and Shaw’s in Waterbury this week, the bag policies were revised. Plastic bags are gone. Reusable bags are allowed again. And if you forget your own bag, paper ones are available for 10 cents apiece. 

Meanwhile, on the other end of the grocery food chain, everyone will need to pay attention to how they are handling food waste because keeping food out of the trash means  that Vermonters now need to compost themselves or either find a service to pick up their food waste or a place to drop it off. 

The food waste ban from landfills is the final step outlined by Act 148, the Universal Recycling Law that mandated  “blue bin” recycling in 2015 and banned yard debris from landfills in 2016.

The goals of the food-waste policy  are about using resources more efficiently and reducing the amount of waste dumped into the state’s remaining landfill in the Northeast Kingdom. According to The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, food scraps make up one quarter of the typical Vermont family’s waste and are responsible for producing huge amounts of methane gas when left to decompose slowly in a landfill.

The state defines food scraps as any food typically discarded rather than eaten such as peels, rinds, cores, eggshells, pits, as well as plate scraps and spoiled leftovers. 

What to do with food waste

The two largest haulers serving Waterbury for trash and recycling collection say they will not do food waste pickup at individual residences, according to company officials. Myers Container Service will just handle food waste from businesses in the area. Casella will handle food waste from residential accounts with four or more units. 

Those who want to compost themselves can learn how through online resources such as the Food Scraps page located on the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation website.

John Malter, administrator of the Mad River Resource Management Alliance, suggests backyard composting,  indoor vermiculture composting with worms or feeding food waste to chickens. Malter leads workshops on how to set up and manage home composting. “The most important part of the class is the give and take from the folks that are participating. There is a lot of ‘been-there-done-that’ experience. What works, what doesn’t work, what folks find most interesting, or most disastrous,” Malter said. 

Malter’s next workshop is on August 15 from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the Waterbury  Public Library. Participants are eligible for discounts on composters. More information is available on the alliance’s website. 

Malter said he thinks that there are some common misconceptions about what the new law entails. “Something that has worried a lot of people is managing meat, bones, fish, and grease. Those items can continue to go into the trash. That is really important, a lot of people have not picked up on that. It is key to residents who worry about a lot of odors or attracting critters,” Malter said.

Food scraps no longer are allowed in trash headed to the landfill. Non-meat food waste should be composted at home or with a commercial service. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti.

The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department offers tips on “Composting in Bear Country” on its website. 

For those who don’t want to compost themselves, there are several options. 

Grow Compost located on U.S. Route 2 in Moretown accepts food scraps for free. Established in 2008, the company has evolved into one of the larger companies offering food scrap hauling services in Vermont, doing year-round collection and training for larger establishments such as assisted living facilities, colleges, schools, hospitals and  restaurants. 

“We take all food scraps for free. We have been doing that for about four years now,” said Kyle Lanvit, the company’s route manager. 

In Waterbury, local residents can drop off food waste at Fast Trash near the Ice Center for a fee. “$20 for a five-gallon bucket,” owner Rodney Companion said.  The recycling and trash drop-off facility is required to offer the service but Companion said he suspects customers might prefer free disposal in Moretown.  “Grow [Compost] is just a mile and a half down the road,” he said. 

Entrepreneurs fill curbside niche

As the food waste law changes approached, new services have started up to meet the demand. Roots Compost is a new local business run by partners Ellen Ross and Will McDonald. Ross, 30, describes the start of their business as on a whim. 

“Initially we were just doing it for neighbors. Then one of my friends said that I should post about it on Front Porch Forum just to see what the interest would be like. Within five days we have gone from just picking up on our road in Duxbury to picking up in all of Waterbury, Stowe, Williston, Essex, and Richmond,” she said.

Ross said small start-ups like Roots Compost will help implement the new law that created this new requirement without specific guidance on how Vermonters would meet it.  “I don’t necessarily feel like there has been a plan in place for municipalities to handle it. There is a barrier for people to connect the dots between the compost they are creating at home and where to bring it. We are trying to do that,” Ross said.

Roots provides several options for food waste pickup from weekly at $32 per month to just once monthly for $12. 

EarthGirl Composting, founded by Megan Kolbay in Montpelier, is another composting business available in Washington County. Kolbay has been providing curbside pickup of food waste since Earth Day in 2006 serving households and non-food based businesses. They provide customers with a five-gallon bucket and pick up either weekly  for $8 weekly or every other week for $12. 

The new food waste law apparently has overwhelmed EarthGirl’s phone line. On Thursday, the company’s voicemail said it could take up to five business days for them to get in touch with you, and the mailbox was full. 

Counting on people to comply

While it may seem like a new chore to change routines to begin home composting or either have food waste picked up or find a place to drop it off, state and local officials caution people to resist the temptation to put food waste down the garbage disposal. 

Waterbury Municipal Manager William Shepeluk described why using an in-sink garbage disposal for food scraps is wasteful: “Putting them down the drain is the same as putting them in a landfill. They are a resource that can be converted into energy, or fertilizer that is good for gardens. Flushing them down the drain as a way to get rid of them is a waste of that resource. The wastewater plant in Waterbury treats organic waste [such as] food scraps, but it takes energy to digest that waste.”

For those wondering how this shift in daily routines to handle food scraps at home will happen across the general public, state environmental officials acknowledge that the success of this law relies largely on personal responsibility.

The Agency of Natural Resources prioritizes outreach and education on the food waste ban and staff there will focus on ensuring that options exist for residential food scrap collection and drop-off. Officials said that they will focus compliance efforts on the largest producers of food waste and on complaints that they receive. 

So the state does not plan to sort through residential trash bags looking for recyclables or food scraps.

“We don’t have the resources to check every individual's trash for food scraps,” said Josh Kelly, the agency’s Materials Management Section chief.

Community News Service is a collaboration with the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program.