ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — The food scraps you throw out are heavy.
"Organic waste is the heaviest component of the waste stream," St. Augustine Public Words Deputy Director Todd Grant said.
Every pound of trash costs cities money. They have to pay the dump to take it.
"Regular trash going to the landfill is $57/ton," Grant said.
The city of St. Augustine wants to implement a pilot composting program. Any residents and businesses who want to participate can by simply putting their foods scraps into separate containers.
The city plans to provide residents a 5 to 10 gallon bucket. It would have a lid. And you'd collect your food scraps in it.
Grant said, "On the collection day, they would set that out. We would go and collect that can and replace it with a clean, same-size can. So they keep getting swapped out. So that way, you don't have a can that is dirty, smelly, that type of thing."
The food scraps would then be turned into organic composting for gardening.
Here's how the money part of this breaks down.
"Every year, the cost to dispose of trash goes up," Grant said.
But by having fewer food scraps in the trash, the city can pay the landfill less.
Taking food scraps to a composting facility can cost money too, but not nearly as much.
"The disposal costs sometimes are free to nominal compared to going to the landfill," Grant said.
So in the long run, instead of your trash bill going up, the city of St. Augustine would be able to "maintain the low rates we have for customers now."
Because it's in the planning stages, no word on how much extra it would cost you to subscribe to the food scrap pick up program, or when it would start.
It's a program that could eventually save the city and its residents money, while meeting the city's sustainability and earth-friendly goals.
"I just think that's good government," Grant said.