Residential Composting Program
In 2024, Jamestown (2,700 households) sent 2,101 tons of solid waste to the landfill in Johnston. This number does not include recyclables (924 tons), lawn and leaf debris (755 tons), scrap metal (70 tons), and other recycled items such as mattresses, bikes, and shredded paper (28 tons).
The town is currently exploring ways to reduce the volume of waste to the landfill by improve island-wide composting and recycling. Stay tuned for a public survey and additional information.
Why Compost?
The Johnston landfill is expected to reach capacity by 2046. Total municipal waste caps (the amount of waste municipalities are allowed to dump at a reduced rate) are decreasing by 6% each year. As this happens, more and more waste is charged the more expense rate.
Composting food scraps can reduce the amount of waste we send to the central landfill and reduce the costs charged for tipping fees. Ultimately this may reduce municipal taxpayer costs.
Wasted food scraps in landfills is the third leading cause of methane gas emissions (methane gas is 20-80x more potent than CO2). And in case you are wondering, the top two human-caused methane producers are the fossil fuel industry (#2) and the agriculture industry (#1).
Click here to sign-up.
Jamestown’s low rate of $130/year.
Composting in the Schools
Congratulations to Melrose Avenue Elementary School (a U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School) and Lawn Middle School for organizing lunchroom composting programs! Students and teacher volunteers collect uneaten food and food scraps which are picked up regularly by Black Earth Compost.
In 2024 the schools were able to divert a total of 9.3 tons of compostable trash from the landfill.
