WHO KNEW Thanksgiving Week Would Be the Perfect Time to Start Composting with a Local Food Waste Recycling Program?

Cooking a Thanksgiving feast generates a lot of waste that ends up in the landfill producing methane, a problematic greenhouse gas. My menu is turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, green beans, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. I end up with potato peelings, onion skins, celery ends, green bean ends and strings, overripe and bruised cranberries, extra dough bits, fat from the roasting pan and lots of bones.

With We Recycle Food, a division of Nordic Waste Services (www.nordicwaste.net ), you can just throw all your scraps into their clean yellow 5- gallon bucket and drop it off at any of the three Coop stores in Hanover, Lebanon or White River Junction for $26 a month. Just pick up another clean bucket to take home or for $6 more use their curbside weekly pickup service. For the Lebanon Solid Waste and Recycling Facility, (https://lebanonnh.gov/DocumentCenter/View/13335/Discarded-Foodscraps-and-Soiled-Paper-Brochure?bidId=) it’s free to bring your scraps in a paper bag or compostable plastic bag and drop it off in the designated dumpster. Check out these websites to see what materials are acceptable. You may also decide to compost in your backyard, though not as many items can be composted because they won't break down or will attract unwanted pests. With either commercial or backyard composting you will be diverting material from the landfill.