Recipient Organization
CITY OF PLANO
1520 K AVE
PLANO,TX 75074
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The City of Plano's Sustainability & Environmental Education Division (SEED) is tasked with developing and delivering education and outreach to Plano residents on sustainability topics including waste minimization and composting. Over the years, Plano residents have approached SEED to request residential food waste composting services in addition to the yard waste composting services offered by the City. SEED performed research to determine a residential food scrap community composting framework that would be feasible to conduct as a pilot project in Plano and applied for a Solid Waste Implementation Grant from the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) in 2022. A grant was awarded, and the City of Plano Residential Food Scrap Composting Pilot Project commenced in January 2023.The goals of the program are to divert food scraps from the landfill, reduce the negative environmental impacts associated with the landfilling of food scraps including both landfill greenhouse gas emissions and upstream resource consumption associated with the cultivation, production, transportation, etc. of wasted food and cultivate community norms food waste reduction and composting. Plano residents collect food scraps at home and drop off those scraps at any of the eight collection sites across the city for composting by a commercial composter.During the pilot period(January 2023 to June 2023), 39,960 pounds of food waste were diverted from the landfill, resulting in an avoidance of 10,875 kilograms of CO2 equivalents (EPAWARM Model). The program had reached a subscribership exceeding the level that was defined in the grant application,indicating success. The term of grant endedon June 15, 2023. A limited amount of funds areavailable to continue the program while future funding is identified. The City is seeking funding under the USDA Composting and Food Waste Reduction (CFWR) Project to continue to expand the program, with the overarching goals of (1)increasing awareness and benefits of the various food waste reduction strategies including, but not limited to, source reduction and composting and (2) increasing both single-family home and multifamily residential participation in the City's Residential Food Scrap Composting Pilot Program.The City proposes to continue administering the program as was successfully done under the NCTCOG grant, expanding as needed. The City also proposes to build on its library of educational programs on food waste reduction strategies by developing educational programming for all ages and an online learning module for teens and adults that will target the top source reduction tier of the EPA Food Waste Hierarchy.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The goals of this program are to increase household participation in the City of Plano Residential Food Scrap Composting Pilot Program and reductions in wasted food and landfilled food. The City's Environmental Waste Services Department has historical data on household waste generation by month for over a decade. Tracking and averaging residential trash to look for decrease in per-household trash will be the biggest indicator of community reduction.Table 1. Evaluation of Program EffectivenessGoalMeasurementIncrease participation in the City of Plano Residential Food Scrap Composting ProgramTrack and analyze enrollment and demographics of participantsReduce wasted food sent to landfillAnalyze city-wide trash collection data to determine if there has been a decrease in waste generationIncrease food scraps collected for compostingTrack and analyze trends in collections of food scraps as participation grows and seasonallyCultivate inclusive community norms around reducing food waste and compostingTrack enrollment composting education offered by the City; track enrollment and retention in the composting pilot program; analyze demographics of participants to support equitable access to composting education and programsIncrease investment in private composting infrastructureSurvey private composting providers to determine if there has been an increase in interest and participation by Plano residentsProvide residents with skills and knowledge to participate in composting programsSurvey participants in composting education classes and the composting pilot regarding confidence in skillset to continue participating in their chosen method of food waste reduction and/or compostingIncrease awareness of wasted food impacts on climate and societyTrack requests for source reduction education and participation in the online training module
Project Methods
Process: Residents can register for the program by visiting a link on our website. We will do multi-level marketing to get the residents to visit the website and learn about the program.Program participants will pay a one time $45 fee to join the pilot. Although this fee will not cover costs of participation in the program, it does give the residents a bit of ownership in the program which we hope will make it more successful with reduced contamination. The fee is paid online and a registration email is sent to our office and participants are added to our database.Once residents are registered, they can come by our office and collect their welcome kit, consisting of a collection bucket, compost sample, welcome letter with collection cart locations and do's and don'ts of composting.After residents collect their food scraps at home, they will take the scraps to any of the 8 locations around town and dump their buckets into larger carts for weekly collection by an outside vendor.Once the vendor processes the carts, they send us weekly metrics. We will use the metrics to adjust marketing as needed to reach a wider audience.Outreach and engagement will be on-going through various newsletters and marketing tools, hosted classes and webinars, newly designed online learning modules and pop up education programs in our mobile outreach van.