Until now, green garbage bins have been used for grass clippings and yard waste. In Clovis you can throw your leftover food in green garbage bins as well.
Angela Bates spent Friday mowing her lawn. But now, after she tosses her grass out, she can also toss in leftovers and food she would otherwise be dumping in her regular trash.
Allied Waste managers say the pilot program is intended to turn this food waste into a rich compost.
" It's really kind of a scrape plate program, because it can't have plastic in there and all that stuff, we just wanna have pure food waste mixed with the green waste," said Allied Waste General Manager Keith Hester.
These flyers posted on trash cans are notifying Clovis residents of the green change. It is now acceptable to put items like egg shells, cheese, meat, and bread into the yard waste container. The program is only for residential customers. Residents who participate, are also asked to put at least some green waste in the container to mix with the discarded food.
Some Clovis residents, like Allan Shipman like the new option.
" It's a good idea, it's not going to hurt anything. It's just something more that can be put somewhere else I guess," Shipman said.
Shipmans green waste container is rarely full. Since he is paying for the service, he wants to fill his can, if not with flower trimmings and grass, then with food.
Marsha Howard does not use her green waste container every week, but she is not sure she wants to fill it with food during the scorching Central Calley summer
"This doesn't get filled up but like once every two weeks and since this doesn't get filled up and we put food in there, it will become very stinky with the sun and the heat. Yea, I don't think it sounds like a good idea," Howard said.
Waste managers say although food waste does not account for a large percentage of trash they haul away, making these scraps recyclable will save valuable space in landfills. Garbage collectors hope residents will also remember that recycling food is also better than putting it down a garbage disposal to end up at a wastewater treatment facility.
If you have smelled decomposing grass after a few days it can be overwhelming. Trash managers say it is not that worse adding food in the mix.
