Case Study
Getting cities started on organics collection

A blueprint to help municipalities recover food waste and compostable packaging

The Challenge

Food scraps sent to landfills cause the majority of methane emissions released by municipal landfills in the U.S., which has led to growing interest in diverting these materials for compost. But getting started isn’t easy — community leaders seeking to establish organic recycling programs must navigate complex questions while often working with limited resources, data, and expertise. To help municipalities scale food scrap collection, we partnered with Eco-Cycle to build an essential guide to getting started.

58%

of methane emissions from municipal landfills come from wasted food scraps

1/5

of municipal solid waste comes from wasted food

10%

of U.S. households have access to organics recycling through drop-off and curbside collection

70%

of food composting facilities also accept some compostable packaging formats

The Solution

To ensure the guide could support municipal leaders in a diverse range of jurisdictions, we spoke with subject matter experts, reviewed contracts and interviewed municipal decision-makers across the Northeast, Midwest, South and West. The research highlighted many tangible actions municipalities can take to tackle food waste, such as using curbside leaf collection to start an organics recycling and the role of elected leaders in crafting ordinances to support composting infrastructure. We synthesized the findings into a report that delivers insightful and data-backed guidance on how to navigate composting policy, how to build infrastructure, how to engage service providers and how to motivate community participation.  

“By creating this blueprint, we aim to equip municipal leaders with a basic ‘how-to’ manual to launch or scale successful organics programs that contribute to a zero-waste future, clean organics streams and a thriving composting industry.”

– Kate Daly, Managing Partner and CEO of the Closed Loop Center

Impact

We delivered the findings in a landmark blueprint that serves as a resource for municipalities to scale collection and composting infrastructure. The blueprint has been downloaded over 500 times and has been read by government leaders, facility operators, non-profits and policymakers. It has been covered extensively by industry media publications ,including BioCycle, Waste Today, Resource Recycling, Waste Management World, Waste360 and Waste Dive.

Our Role

Research

  • Expert interviews
  • Review of state and local ordinances
  • Service provider contract analyses

Design

  • Research report creation

Build

Download the full report

Download
Download

Related Content

Why More Composters Are Recovering Food Scraps and Certified Compostable Packaging
Insights
Improving composting through food and packaging recovery

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We are  part of Closed Loop Partners—which includes the largest privately held recycling company in the U.S. and one of the largest circular economy capital management groups in the world—we’re uniquely positioned to bring research, design, and real-world implementation together.