Plastics, glass, paper and cardboard are the recyclables everyone knows. But some Carroll officials want to add food scraps to the list.
Instead of investing in a $328 million trash-to-energy incinerator with Frederick County, Carroll?s Environmental Advisory Council wants the county to push recycling for five years before making a decision.
And the next step in recycling would be adding food to the mix, said Sher Horosko, a member of the council.
“It?s a perfect fit for this community because we have such a focus on farming,” Horosko said. “It shows how much more we can do before putting millions in a waste-to-energy plant.”
Carroll has no food composting now. The only food-composting company in Maryland, Chesterfield Farms, is a five-acre site in Crofton owned by Alan Boehm.
Boehm said he?s been contacted by several institutions in Carroll that produce significant amounts of food waste. But because Crofton is so far away, on the other side of Baltimore City in Anne Arundel County, it?s not practical to compost there.
At McDaniel College, officials want to compost food that is otherwise thrown out, but there is no place to do it, said Joyce Muller, a college spokeswoman.
The college tries to limit trash by preparing food in smaller batches so less is thrown out, she added.
But the only way Carroll may get a food-composting site is if it?s willing to partner with a private company and donate land, Boehm said.
“It?s very hard for us to get money,” he said. “Straight up, this is a capital industry. It takes a lot of equipment. I think that in the future there has to be a public-private partnership for this to be successful for everyone.”
And while the county?s public works department supports a trash-to-energy incinerator, it suggested in its proposal to county commissioners that the county start composting food.
“I?d like to look at it,” said Mike Evans, head of Carroll?s public works. “Whenever you say the words ?public-private partnership,? it invariably means we give up land and money.”
