The Dirt on Composting

The League of Women Voters of the Cooperstown Area is launching the Spring season with some “dirty work.”  On Monday, March 30, at 1 pm the League’s Natural Resources Committee, in conjunction with Connections at the Clark Sports Center and the Cooperstown Food Pantry, will present “The Dirt on Composting.” The program will feature a presentation by Worms Waste Not of Oneonta, a compost pickup service founded in 2024 by Rachel Frick Cardelle.

In January 2022, New York passed the Food Donation and Food Scraps Recycling law, which required businesses and institutions that generate an annual average of two tons of wasted food per week or more to donate excess edible food and recycle all remaining food scraps if they are within 25 miles of an organics recycler (composting facility, anaerobic digester, etc.). In January 2027, the law will expand, lowering that annual average to one ton; by 2029 that average will drop to .5 tons.

Americans discard nearly 60 million tons of food annually, which amounts to almost 40% of the total US food supply. Food waste is the single largest component taking up space inside US landfills. Meanwhile, it is estimated that nearly 35 million people across America—including 10 million children— suffer from food insecurity. When laws such as New York’s go into effect, donations to local food pantries increase, thereby providing a two-fold solution to the environmental impact of food waste and the ongoing problem of food insecurity.

Households, of course, don’t generate anywhere near that much organic material. And many people who live in apartments or have close-by neighbors (both humans and bears!) can’t maintain compost facilities in their yards. But people are interested in reducing waste. That’s where Worms Waste Not comes in. Since 2024, Rachelle and her business partner Meghan Cassidy have diverted more than 30,000 pounds of food waste from local landfills through their company Worms Waste Not.

The presentation will focus on different ways to reduce food waste—from carefully planning meals and buying groceries, to storing food to make it last longer, so it's not going to waste, to diverting food scraps so they do not end up in the landfill. Participants will also learn about the different composting options that are available to them.

For further informaiton contact Natural Resources Chair tenicobal [at] gmail.com (Tracy Roberts)