Bellingham residents required to use curbside compost bins for organic waste starting in 2025
All Bellingham residents will be required to have another recycling container next year as the city makes participation in its FoodPlus! organic waste program mandatory ahead of state law.
FoodPlus! bins are for food scraps, food-soiled papers, yard debris and compostable packaging, Public Works Department spokeswoman Stefanie Cilinceon told The Bellingham Herald.
The service costs $13.69 a month, and the 60-gallon totes are emptied every other week by Sanitary Services Company, the city’s waste hauler. The required service will be rolled out gradually over the first few months of 2025.
Citywide organic waste recycling comes after the 2023 start of the “single-stream” recycling program that uses one bin for metal, glass, plastic, paper and cardboard. By mid-2025, Bellingham residents will have three bins — one each for trash, recycling and food waste.
Sean O’Neill, the city’s sanitation and solid waste manager, said the idea is to reduce what’s trucked to landfills.
“We’re going to reduce climate emissions while turning waste into compost,” O’Neill said in a Nov. 4 presentation to City Council’s Public Works and Natural Resources Committee.
Organic material is the largest part of what’s thrown away in Whatcom County, he said.
“It’s at least 30% of the waste stream currently. How can we work together to divert the majority of that material to composting facilities rather than to landfills?” O’Neill said.
About one-third of Bellingham residents — some 8,000 households — already use the FoodPlus! program for household organic waste. An education campaign is planned to show what types of material can go in the curbside compost bins.
“There’s going to be a learning curve. We’re talking about adding 12,000-plus new customers,” O’Neill said.
Whatcom County residents outside Bellingham won’t be required to pay for the FoodPlus! program as part of a 2022 state law, said Jennifer Hayden, the Environmental Health Division supervisor.
“The only area in Whatcom County that will be affected by the requirement for curbside organic service is the city of Bellingham and its urban growth area,” Hayden told The Herald in an email. “That requirement will come in phases; by 2027 curbside organic service will be required to be provided in the identified area (which it already is), and by 2030 it will be mandatory for residential customers. The city of Bellingham is ahead of schedule with mandatory curbside organic service, so it’s only the (urban growth area) that will be directly affected by this law come 2030.”
This story was originally published November 27, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
