ENGLEWOOD — City council July 23 passed a resolution to approve a supporting partnership role in the Food Waste Recovery and Resource Program.
The city will establish a drop-off site for residents to dispose of food waste behind the service center at 1111 Union Rd.
The Dayton Food Bank and Montgomery County Solid Waste District have requested Englewood to become a supporting member of its Food Waste recovery and Resource Program. Food scraps from the community would be taken to a composting facility located in Montgomery County.
The program is funded by an Ohio EPA grant obtained by the Dayton Food Bank and the Montgomery County Solid Waste District. There would be no direct cost for Englewood to participate.
The Food Waste Drop-off Program enables residents to use 5-gallon buckets to place their food waste in and bring it to the drop-off site. The food waste would be picked up once a week and taken to the composting site.
To date, this program has composted more than 300,000 pounds of food waste.
“This is a program sponsored by the Montgomery County Solid Waste District and they have asked for different locations to be stablished within the county, and several already have been,” said City Manager Eric Smith.
“They asked if we wanted to participate. This is for food waste that would be collected weekly at no charge to the city,” Smith stated. “This is a recycling program that we believe would benefit the citizens of Englewood with no cost to the city.”
Mayor Cathy McGrail asked if the program had experienced much activity at sites currently in place. Smith said that, “So far it has been a successful program.”
“Is there any concern about wild animal or critters getting into those areas? Are they cleaned out regularly?” asked Councilman Andrew Gough.
“They are cleaned out once a week. Vermin infestation… we don’t believe that is going to be an issue,” Smith said. “Our drop-off site will be located next to the used oil drop-off down at the service center, so it will be isolated and if there is a problem that should develop it would be easy to solve. It won’t affect anybody other than the service department.
“Worst case scenario, if it doesn’t work, we walk away from it,” Smith added.
Gough also asked if the drop-off site would have an odor but Smith said it shouldn’t due to the frequent collection of the food waste.
According to a memorandum from Ryan Kruse, the city’s director of human services, other counties in Ohio have achieved great success with the program.
For example, Franklin County offers 23 drop-off sites that reaches 70 percent of the population around the Columbus area and has plans to expand to 50 sites by the end of 2026.
Several other cities and non-profit organizations, educational institutions, and medical facilities in Montgomery County are planning on becoming supporting partners in the program.
Reach Ron Nunnari at (937) 684-9124 or email [email protected].
