Composting offered at Medina County Solid Waste District

WESTFIELD TWP. — Medina County residents can now bring their food scraps to the Medina County Solid Waste District for disposal, keeping the waste out of the landfill. Medina County Solid Waste District Coordinator Barb Walton was contacted by Rubber City Reuse about composting and the use of its drop-off program. Rubber City Reuse, based in Summit County, is a sustainable waste management company specializing in organic recycling and composting. Earlier this year, Rubber City Reuse received grant funding from a recently launched program by the Composting Consortium, in partnership with the U.S. Composting Council and the Biodegradable Products Institute. With those funds, Rubber City Reuse expanded its work into Medina, Portage, Stark, and Mahoning counties. Rubber City Reuse owner Ben McMillan said the company expanded its drop-off services, which allow people to bring their food scraps to a designated drop-off site for Rubber City Reuse to gather at a later time. In Medina County, the first drop-off site is at the Medina County Solid Waste District, 8730 Lake Road, near the single-stream recycling bins. The containers are accessible during the site's typical hours of operation of 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. onday through Friday and 7 a.m. to noon Saturdays. "I wanted to be able to have it at a location where we could monitor it," Walton said. "Since it's right here at our facility, we can see how everything takes off." To take part, Medina County residents just need to collect any food waste in a container and then bring that container to the Medina County Solid Waste District's facility. Then, they would dump the food waste into the designated containers for proper disposal. Learn more about the program at recyclemedinacounty.com/food-composting. "You're already here, you're already dumping off your recycling," Walton said. "So, why not do your food waste at the same time?" With the program's expansion into several counties, McMillan's goal is to start at the Medina County Solid Waste District's location and monitor it before expanding throughout the area. A long-term goal of McMillan's is to add drop-off food scrap locations next to the Medina County Solid Waste District's drop-off recycling locations to make it more accessible. "The single easiest, cheapest, most effective thing you can do to be more sustainable in your household and everyday life is compost," McMillan said. "Even if you don't compost with our program, just keeping food scraps out of your trash, keeping yard waste out of your trash, is the easiest, most effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions." If anyone in Medina County would be interested in becoming a drop-off location, McMillan encourages them to contact Rubber City Reuse, www.rubbercityreuse.com. Contact reporter Sara Crawford at (330) 721-4063 or scrawford@medina-gazette.com.