By Susan Messer
Composting is the natural process of recycling organic matter, such as leaves and food scraps, into fertilizer. When you collect your food scraps for composting, you cut down on the amount of trash that goes into landfill. If that organic waste instead ends up in landfill, it breaks down and is emitted into the atmosphere as methane—an extremely potent greenhouse gas. But as nutrient-rich compost—sometimes referred to as black gold—it can be used in gardens, where it enriches the soil, thus reducing the need for fertilizers and pesticides. This is reuse/recycling/circularity at its natural best!
Oak Park, as many of you know, has a household food-scrap composting program that is available to single-family and five-flat households via its local refuse and recycling services. For complete details on how the program works, please visit https://www.oak-park.us/village-services/refuse-recycling/compostable-program.
However, Oak Park has many multifamily apartment buildings that are too large to participate in the Village’s compost program. Until now, those residents had only one place where they could drop off food scraps: 102 N. Lombard Ave., near the Central Water Pump Station. But now, residents have three new compost drop-off locations:
1125 Ontario St., inside the east entrance of the Holley Court Garage
720 North Blvd., inside the main entrance to the Avenue Garage
1010 N. Ridgeland Ave., at the North Water Pump station
All four sites have clearly labeled carts, where you can bring your scraps in ASTM 6400 standard compostable bags or wrap them in newspaper.
m.malinika/shutterstock
And here are additional composting options: Any large multifamily building or condo association can contract independently with the Village’s contractor—called Lakeshore Recycling Systems (LRS)—or another provider for composting service. Oak Park nonprofit organizations are also eligible to contract with LRS at the Village’s composting rate.
Please contact publicworks@oak-park.us for assistance with the compost contracting process. Once you get used to composting, you just won’t feel right letting those food scraps go to waste.