{"id":14152,"date":"2021-11-12T11:55:13","date_gmt":"2021-11-12T16:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/?p=14152"},"modified":"2022-01-17T12:57:31","modified_gmt":"2022-01-17T17:57:31","slug":"new-food-waste-recycling-program-opens-at-needhams-rts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/2021\/11\/new-food-waste-recycling-program-opens-at-needhams-rts\/","title":{"rendered":"New Food Waste Recycling Program Opens at Needham&#8217;s RTS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Our food waste problem<a href=\"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/food-waste-composting-at-RTS.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-14154 size-medium alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/food-waste-composting-at-RTS-300x259.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"259\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/food-waste-composting-at-RTS-300x259.png 300w, https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/food-waste-composting-at-RTS-150x129.png 150w, https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/food-waste-composting-at-RTS.png 427w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<p>Did you know that food waste in the U.S. makes up the <strong><em>largest<\/em> <\/strong>percentage of our overall solid waste at<em><strong> 22%?<sup>1<\/sup>\u00a0 <\/strong><\/em>It&#8217;s scary to think of how high that number is, but it also presents us with a great opportunity, because starting this past Wednesday, November 3rd, the Needham Recycling Transfer Station\u2019s (RTS) brand new food waste recycling program started!<\/p>\n<p><b>An opportunity!<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Using this program, we can keep our food waste out of the garbage stream and\u00a0 generate energy, reducing the amount of greenhouse gases we are producing.\u00a0 This program is available to all Needham residents for free. Even those who are already composting can benefit because this program accepts non-compostable food waste.<\/p>\n<p><b>Here\u2019s how the program works:<\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Separate your solid (not liquid) food waste and place it in a bag\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">The bags are very important to prevent rodents and odors<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">Compostable bags are the most environmentally friendly option, however plastic bags will be accepted<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">See below for a list of acceptable food<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Bring your bags of food waste to the RTS and drop them in the green bins in the clearly labeled \u201cFood Waste Recycling\u201d area\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">If you don\u2019t have an RTS sticker, they are free!\u00a0 Just drop by the Town Treasurer\u2019s Office at the Needham Town Hall, 1471 Highland Ave and pick one up!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><b>Acceptable food waste items:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">All food items are recyclable for this program (meats and seafoods including small bones, dairy, bread, fruit, etc.).\u00a0 However, residents should NOT place the following in the food waste recycling barrels:\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">NO liquids. This includes juice\/soda\/milk\/grease\/cooking oil. Sauces, such as apple sauce, are fine provided they are not in a plastic container<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">NO non-organic materials in with the food waste (straws, utensils, cups, lids, etc.)<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">NO pet wastes<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">NO yard waste<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What happens to all that food?<a href=\"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/food-waste-composting-at-RTS-2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-14155 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/food-waste-composting-at-RTS-2-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" data-wp-editing=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/food-waste-composting-at-RTS-2-300x290.png 300w, https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/food-waste-composting-at-RTS-2-45x45.png 45w, https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/food-waste-composting-at-RTS-2-150x145.png 150w, https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/food-waste-composting-at-RTS-2.png 476w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">The food is picked up by our partner Agri-cycle and brought to an anaerobic digester to be turned into biogas for energy<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Any plastic bags will be separated out by the machinery and disposed of as trash<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Want to join our efforts?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Green Needham is looking for talented volunteers to help us push this important work forward.\u00a0 We have a number of initiatives, including a zero waste team that is focused on local projects to reduce the town\u2019s waste.\u00a0 Two current projects for the zero waste team include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Restarting the Needham Public School (NPS) organics program, in collaboration with Needham Public Schools<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">An initiative to increase the number of residents that have, and use, reusable grocery \/ shopping bags.\u00a0 This could include working with NPS students to design signs (e.g. don\u2019t forget your reusable bag!) to put up in key parking lots (e.g. supermarkets, Staples), to design and perhaps sell reusable bags, and generally find ways to change people\u2019s habits around reusable bags.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We have a number of other active projects and areas of focus.\u00a0 Take a look <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/projects\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/join-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">join us<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><b>Citations:\u00a0<\/b><\/span><br \/>\n1. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Food Loss and Waste<\/span><br \/>\nU.S. Food &amp; Drug Administration<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/food\/consumers\/food-loss-and-waste\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/food\/consumers\/food-loss-and-waste<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Our food waste problem Did you know that food waste in the U.S. makes up the largest percentage of our overall solid waste at 22%?1\u00a0 It&#8217;s scary to think of how high that number is, but it also presents<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":14155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[293,200],"tags":[10,224],"class_list":["post-14152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food-waste-tzw","category-tzw","tag-news","tag-project-milestone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}