Composting in Hanover
Neighborhood
Judy Payne of Sargent Street, continues to manage her homemade 5-family 3-bin composting system. It has been going well for 3 years with annual spring harvests of compost shared by the families. Some neighbors have their own backyard composters, but this multi-family setup is for families that did not want to do that. The larger system means the compost gets warmer so decomposes faster. It is latched to protect it from dogs and bears. Judy built it from re-used wood using a design from a Vermont landfill site. For more information contact Judy (judy.payne@gmail.com)
Dartmouth College
“Currently, Dartmouth composts about 400 tons of food waste annually. The Dartmouth Recycles crew transports food waste from dining venues to a compost compactor, and our waste hauler then transports the compactor to the Lebanon Landfill where it is placed in windrows for composting. The composted material is spread as a top layer over landfill areas and planted with grass seed.”
Kendal at Hanover
Since 2009, Kendal at Hanover has diverted 90% of its kitchen food waste from the landfill to compost using a complex system that pulverizes food waste. The results are loaded into 35 gallon bins which are taken by a local compost farmer who processes it into a marketable compost sold to farmers and local gardeners. Through this partnership about 20 tons of food waste per year has been successfully composted. In addition, prepared food that wasn’t used by the dining hall is picked up by Willing Hands for distribution to organizations such as Listen, Upper Valley Haven, and Upper Valley Senior Center.
Recently efforts by the Residents Association have developed a program to compost left over table scraps from residents. Each resident is encouraged to place these scraps in designated areas located on the campus. There they find bins to place their scraps along with tree leaves to be added to begin the composting. Bins are picked up regularly by the same local compost farmer. https://tinyurl.com/ytnvrdex
Some Composting Help
Hanover households have several options to avoid sending food waste to produce polluting gases in landfill. For residents with the space, backyard composting is an excellent way to recycle food scraps into a valuable soil resource. Interested in learning how to do this successfully? Watch for coming announcements about Sustainable Hanover’s workshop on this topic in September. The workshop will feature popular regional compost and food system expert Cat Buxton.
For off-site composting options, the Lebanon landfill (https://lebanonnh.gov/1464/) accepts food waste in paper or compostable bags. This requires an annual $5 permit. Another option is Nordic https://werecyclefood.com/. Nordic provides its customers with a 5 gallon bucket and compostable liners. It offers a choice of curbside pickup or a drop off service at a Coop Food Store for a monthly fee.