Port Townsend resident Charles Law has been collecting signatures in support of building and operating a food compost facility in Jefferson County. In the past couple months he has gathered about 1,000 signatures and the support of several local organizations, including the Port Townsend Food Co-op and the Jefferson County Farmers Market.
Law said he moved to Port Townsend from Bellingham, where they had a food waste collection program and, when he came to the other side of the water, he wondered why Port Townsend hadn’t followed a similar path.
So he hit the streets, requesting the city and county conduct a feasibility study for a facility. Law garnered 800 in-person signatures before COVID-19 forced his efforts online to change.org, where now more than 200 people have signed up in support.
The composting facility currently in operation in Jefferson County only handles yard waste and is known as a “Type A” composting facility, Jefferson County Solid Waste manager Tom Boatman said.
The two cannot be mixed, so moving to “Type B” food-waste composting would require a significant capital investment and an increase in operating costs that, while possible and might have community support, is challenging for a number of reasons, Boatman said.
Changes to the Solid Waste’s budget to facilitate new operations would have to come from the Board of County Commissioners and could require an increase in the transfer station “tipping” fee, he said.
These types of facilities typically succeed in communities with larger populations because they have a consistent flow of material to keep the system running. They also have a large base to which they can sell the compost created.
Boatman said he has wide support for this type of system in Port Townsend, including at the Solid Waste Advisory Committee where it was discussed at length and had unanimous support. But actually putting the plan into motion isn’t that simple.
For example, one of hundreds of small considerations that would need to be decided regards compost collection bins. Depending on changes to the current facility, food waste could be collected in the same bins as city yard waste, but that might create an animal problem, which would require special locking bins at a cost to residents. And that does not account for collecting in the county where there is no yard waste collection program.
Solid Waste has seen success, he said, in reducing food waste instead through education and encouraging on-site composting where people set up compost bins at their homes. He said Solid Waste facilitates four or five workshops a year where residents can learn how to set up their own home composting.
This is not always possible for some, Law said, as those who live in apartments might not be permitted to compost or do not have the space. Many restaurants or care facilities as well have so much food waste they could not feasibly compost it themselves.
Boatman said one idea considered was collecting food biosolids from residential or commercial sources and transporting them out of the county to other composting sites. But that was not possible due to the cost of transportation and the distance to sites that could take it.
COVID-19 might make a food compost facility even more of a distant dream as county revenues are down considerably. According to Jefferson County Administrator Philip Morley, initial projections show roughly $600,000 in lost revenue is expected to hit the county’s general fund this year, with even more loss projected for next year.
Law said he hopes to get about 1,500 signatures before he approaches the city and county. He hopes the Port Townsend City Council will discuss the issue and identify composting as an essential service.
“There is so much of a need by food growers for having a reliable quality compost and we don’t need to go outside the Peninsula to get it,” Law said. “It’s right here.”
