BOURNE – At a recent meeting of the Cape and Islands Municipal Leadership Association (CIMLA), Barnstable County Municipal Assistance Coordinator Kari Parcell updated regional municipal officials on the Cape Cod Coastal Community Composting Project, a promising effort to reduce regional waste.
The project is an initiative by the County, Upper Cape towns, and officials at Joint Base Cape Cod to address the rising costs and inefficiencies of current methods used for removing food waste, such as trucking and rail removal off-Cape.
Food waste currently makes up a third of the region’s solid waste.
Recent county-funded studies on waste reduction have concluded that building a local composting facility could provide substantial savings while increasing sustainability.
Proponents of the plan point to regional successes in Nantucket’s municipal anaerobic digestion facility as a promising model by converting food waste into energy
“The interest in developing less expensive and environmentally safe alternatives is growing,” said Parcell. “The Cape is known as a composting desert. Nantucket and other towns in Massachusetts have developed creative solutions that we can apply right here on Cape Cod.”
“The county is well positioned to help our towns,” County Commissioner and CIMLA President Mark Forest concurred, “and secure state and federal funds to address this important issue on Cape Cod.”
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