Drop off your food waste at the Transfer Station!

Food Waste Collection Program
Drop off your food waste at the Transfer Station!

Beginning September 16, 2017

The Ayer DPW encourages all households to participate collection of compostable food waste at the Town’s Transfer Station. Food waste is heavy and contributes unnecessarily to Ayer’s weight-based trash disposal costs.  Also, food that is composted, rather than being thrown into the trash, is transformed into "black gold," organic fertilizer that can feed gardens and lawns without synthetic chemicals.

Food scrap collection is another step in conscientious recycling. Just as you separate cans, bottles, and paper recyclables that can be reused or remanufactured, now you will be able also to separate their food scraps from their trash so that the organic waste can be responsibly recycled into organic fertilizer and advantageously returned to the earth.

The DPW has kitchen scrap buckets ($6) and compostable bags ($5 per roll) for collecting food waste as you cook. If you don’t have a scrap bucket, use a pail or bucket with a fitting lid to collect the scraps

Our clearly stated, simple rules for separation will need to be strictly followed so that non-biodegradable materials (packaging plastics and foils, for example) do not get mixed with the food. When residents bring their food waste to the Transfer Station they will find special, wheeled GREEN carts placed near the disposal area where they can deposit their scraps. The cart covers will be firmly secured at night to keep animals out, and to control the malodorous effects of decomposition, the carts will be emptied on a regular schedule; more often in the warm weather than in winter. 

For the simple instructions on what to collect and what not to collect, click here, check the sign at the Transfer Station or look for one of our hand-outs.

The effects of this program could be huge. It is estimated that a family of 4 could divert 20 pounds or more of food per week, meaning that one hundred families over the course of a year could divert a whopping 50 tons away from the trash stream and back to the good earth and significantly reduce our disposal costs.

Kitchen Scrap Bucket $6.00	Compostable Bags $5.00 per 25 Bag Roll

And THANK YOU for your help and support for this exciting program!