San Diego completes organic waste pilot employing formerly homeless
Green organic waste recycling being delivered to San Diego homes Photo courtesy of the city of San Diego The city of San Diego lately completed a pilot activity in which people transitioning out of homelessness were hired to pick contaminants out of organic waste collected in the city s green bins it was communicated Monday The two-week scheme which concluded Wednesday was intended to improve the quality of compost generated by Miramar Greenery The Follow The Compost Pile project employed homeless people working through the East County Transitional Living Center who were tasked with removing any non-organic material brought to Miramar including plastic bags scrap metal glass bottles and more If we are able to implement this process moving forward we can lower the number of contaminants at the end improve operational efficiencies and in turn produce better compost to put out to the area disclosed Jennifer Winfrey assistant deputy director in the Environmental Services Department which led the pilot undertaking Since the city added the green bins in more than San Diegans have recycled food scraps and yard waste The total organic waste climbed from tons in to tons in We re piloting a new process at the Miramar Greenery to manually remove contamination from organic waste You can do your part by putting organic waste in its place the green bin Remember plastic bags labeled compostable shouldn't go in the green bin https t co hddP Ha iI pic twitter com NMwbIOAZ City of San Diego CityofSanDiego August Before the pilot effort began the process at Miramar Greenery involved removing contaminants through a grinding and screening process The people working with East County Transitional Living Center an organization that provides opportunities for people experiencing homelessness to re-enter the workforce manually picked through the waste Contaminants observed during the pilot initiative were documented weighed and manually removed It will take several weeks to analyze the facts a city declaration read San Diego s ESD is also planning a campaign this fall to inform city residents about what can and cannot go into the green bins One of the biggest problems is plastic bags even if they are labeled compostable A single plastic or compostable bag that moves through our composting and grinding process can ultimately upshot in a thousand tiny pieces of plastic Winfrey explained Left to decompose in landfills organic waste releases methane a gas that traps the sun s heat and warms the atmosphere a city comment read If not managed appropriately decomposing organics are a essential source of greenhouse gas emissions They emit of the state s methane a environment super pollutant times more potent than carbon dioxide Items that can go in the green bin include yard waste such as grass clippings and branch trimmings and food scraps such as eggshells vegetable and fruit peelings coffee grounds and chicken and meat bones Recycling options for hard-to-recycle items like appliances bulky items and electronics are available at WasteFreeSD org
