Gainesville commissioners vote to end food waste collection program
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) — City commissioners voted to sunset the pilot food waste composting program in Gainesville.
After months of questions about costs, participation, and contract issues, commissioners decided to end the pilot program on Dec. 31.
The program began in 2021 as a small pilot with about 700 homes taking part. The goal was to divert food scraps from landfills and turn them into compost.
But according to city staff, costs have grown to more than $160,000 a year, and fewer than half of participating homes are actually setting out their buckets. A September statement from the city also claimed that Beaten Path Compost, the contractor running collection, was billing for the full number of customers despite the lower participation rate.
Still, some residents say ending the program now will undo years of progress, wasting money, data, and community efforts already put into it.
“The cost associated with this is like an investment in research, is how would we actually do this. It was never meant to be that the city would pay for all this for all the people in the program and so to just cut that program, having dumped all that money into doing the research without any kind of transition seems to me like that’s actually the waste,” said Matt Buszko, a Zero Waste Gainesville volunteer.
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Commissioners say they’re still committed to their zero-waste goal — they just want it done effectively.
correction: A prior version of this article incorrectly stated the outcome of the commissioners vote
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