By Mary Lacy
Northside News
On June 1, a bright orange kiosk installed in the Warner Park parking lot on North Sherman Avenue, was opened for business. The Food Scrap Stop, designed and built by the Dane County Department of Waste & Renewables in partnership with Madison Children’s Museum, is part of a new program designed to help divert food scraps from the landfill. Dane County, the City of Madison and other municipalities are working with Purple Cow Organics to use this food waste in compost.
There are five kiosks set up with locations in Madison, Middleton and McFarland, with another set to open Aug. 1 in Verona. Currently, the program will accept only the following materials:
▪ Fruit and vegetable scraps (including cobs, rinds, pits, etc.)
▪ Coffee grounds and loose tea (no filters or bags)
▪ Eggshells
▪ Beans, nuts and shells, seeds
People interested in contributing food scraps can review the guidelines and register on the program’s website (landfill.danecounty.gov/compost). Once registered, contributors will be given the combination to a lock on the bins. After depositing scraps, the bins should remain closed and locked to keep animals out and to eliminate deposits of trash or other materials.
According to Dane County Composting Program Coordinator Delaney Gobster, 1,019 households have registered for the program so far, with 252 of those for the Warner Park location.
This program, along with the food scrap collection program by the Northside Farmers Market and Troy Gardens (described in the last issue of the Northside News (northsidenews.org/food-scrap-recycling-at-northside-farmers-market, should be able to keep a good deal of the food waste out of the landfills and turn it into a usable material.
