You, the citizens of Montgomery, did an excellent job keeping waste out of the landfill during 2020! As you know, our Residential Recycle Program (RRI) is the key venue for diverting materials from landfills. The Hamilton County incentive also represents an important income stream that supports our good environmental stewardship. The more we divert from landfills, the more we are compensated from Hamilton County. In 2020 we diverted 64.48% or 2,267 tons out of a total of 3,516 tons of waste generated! The diverted amounts include 1,168.5 tons of recycled material and 1,098.7 tons of yard-waste. This diversion rate is a substantial increase over the 38.7% diverted during 2019 and is on par with the best of our surrounding communities.
Yard Waste – Increased Diverted Tonnage
During 2020 you have significantly increased the recycling of yard waste, a compostable material. In 2020, Yard waste represented almost half of Montgomery’s 64.48% total diverted and is a substantial increase over the 19% of the total diverted in 2019. We are now on par with surrounding communities in diverting yard waste. Yard waste continues to be a focus area this year because it is picked up every trash day and is especially easy to divert! Please continue to ensure that yard waste is not going into the landfill. If you don’t already have one, consider getting a separate yard-waste container, then fill it by trash day to keep your home looking neat and tidy!
Food Waste – Reduce Landfill Waste
In general, food waste represents around 20% of material going into the landfill. Food can be removed from the landfill stream by improved food management and composting. Hamilton County has extensive information and a virtual seminar on “Save the Food.” More information can be obtained under “Preventing Food Waste” at Hamiltoncountyrecycles.org. They also have an informative “Backyard Composting” seminar that explains how corn husks and other food-related items of this nature can be added to yard waste in the composting process. Smart food-management saves money, and attention to food waste increases our diversion rate in addition to creating nutritious compost for our gardens!
Thank you for doing a fantastic job in conserving landfill space while protecting our environment!
According to the composting council, if everyone in the United States composted all of their food waste, the impact would be equivalent to removing 7.8 million cars from the road.
US Composting Council webpage https://www.compostingcouncil.org/