After a pandemic delay, Philly is finally opening 12 community composting sites

Michaela Winberg, WHYY

Philly is about to take a stride forward in reducing its impact on the environment. Starting this summer, some community groups will finally have a free composting option — after the pilot program was delayed a full year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Department of Parks and Recreation is opening its first 12 community composting sites, where members of those groups that applied to be part of the pilot can drop off food scraps and other organic waste at no cost. Also about to launch: Compost pickup at about 30 city rec centers, kicking off in September.
Streets Department officials say they don’t have the capacity to bring back widespread composting. But local advocates think this is a solid start. Now, some Philly prisons are composting, and they won an EPA award for diverting more than 44 million tons of food waste from landfills. But other than that, if a Philly resident wants to make a difference by composting, they’d have to do it in their backyard, or pay a monthly fee to a private company like Bennett Compost or Circle Compost.

More here.