TEMPLE, Texas — The City of Temple is giving its residents some support when it comes to responsible food waste management. The City is the first in the area to launch its new Food Waste Program.
"We just started this food waste program in August, so it's fairly new," said Charlese Butler, a spokeswoman for the City. "Basically this is just a program for residents to dispose of their food scraps properly."
The City has food waste bins available at no cost for residents who want to help with the nationwide issue.
"Think of it as anything we consume is what we want to go into the bins," Butler explained. "That makes a smaller portion of food waste going into our landfill, which therefore creates a longer life for the landfill."
The City of Temple also said the program will help reduce methane emissions and could also save you money. For this to work properly, all you have to do is bring the bin back to the solid waste complex located on E. Avenue H.
Employees at the City's solid waste department will collect the content of your bin and prepare it for compost. There is a big green machine on site that will compress 500 pounds of scraps into 50 pounds of soil amendment, a fertilizer. This soil amendment can be beneficial for plants, gardens, etc.
The soil amendment will be available at no cost to residents. It will be limited to no more than two gallons per household.
As of Sept. 20, personnel at the City's solid waste complex said there are around 180 bins left to give away. There might be more in the future depending on how popular the program becomes.
The Food Waste Program is in operation with the help of Keep Temple Beautiful and Meta, formerly the Facebook company. Meta donated $57,000 to the City of Temple to purchase the composter.