City of Eugene Compostable Love Food Not Waste Program
Introduction
The City of Eugene's Love Food Not Waste commercial compost program allows certain types of compostable products and service-ware to be collected with food waste and plant trimmings. These guidelines will help determine what materials are accepted.
In order to create a final quality product and bring our program full circle, please follow these provided guidelines when purchasing compostable products.
Reusable Service-ware: The Preferred Option
The City of Eugene advocates for source prevention before using compostable products. If there is an opportunity to increase the use of durable serviceware a ta a business, event school or other venue, we highly recommend that option before purchasing single-use serviceware.
Contamination:
Contamination is anything that is not organic, including non-compostable plastic,plastic lined paper products, glass, metal, rubber, rocks or any other "compostable container" or utensil; that does not meet the specific criteria outlined in this document. Food waste processing facilities face few distinct challenges with compostable products. Specifically, compostable plastics do not add any nutrients to the soil during the compost process.
Keeping the Compost Stream Clean:
The goal of the Love Food Not Waste program is to recover food waste and certain compostable products by keeping them out of the landfill. Local businesses that participate in the Love Food Not Waste have a direct impact on the compost stream and must ensure that only specified compostables end up in the food waste bin.
If an overly contaminated load of food waste is delivered to the processor, the waste haulers are changed an additional fee
( ranging from $25.00 to $275.00) or the load is sent to the landfill.
The importance of compostable serviceware certification
Eugene businesses have the opportunity to include compostable plastic-ware by complying with current guidelines.
To avoid "greenwashing" the deceptive practice of branding sustainable products as sustainable,, anyone looking to use use compostable serviceware products in Eugene's system should read over this document and confirm that products purchased for use in the compostable service stream are certified as ASTM-
D6868 commercially compostable.
This is a field that changes rapidly. For this reason City Staff will update these guidelines once per year as needed. For specific questions regarding compostable products please contact Waste Prevention and Green Building Coordinator at 541-682-6842 or email Devereon.r.musgrave@ci.eugene.or.us
The City of Eugene's Love Food Not Waste commercial compost program allows certain types of compostable products and service-ware to be collected with food waste and plant trimmings. These guidelines will help determine what materials are accepted.
In order to create a final quality product and bring our program full circle, please follow these provided guidelines when purchasing compostable products.
Reusable Service-ware: The Preferred Option
The City of Eugene advocates for source prevention before using compostable products. If there is an opportunity to increase the use of durable serviceware a ta a business, event school or other venue, we highly recommend that option before purchasing single-use serviceware.
Contamination:
Contamination is anything that is not organic, including non-compostable plastic,plastic lined paper products, glass, metal, rubber, rocks or any other "compostable container" or utensil; that does not meet the specific criteria outlined in this document. Food waste processing facilities face few distinct challenges with compostable products. Specifically, compostable plastics do not add any nutrients to the soil during the compost process.
Keeping the Compost Stream Clean:
The goal of the Love Food Not Waste program is to recover food waste and certain compostable products by keeping them out of the landfill. Local businesses that participate in the Love Food Not Waste have a direct impact on the compost stream and must ensure that only specified compostables end up in the food waste bin.
If an overly contaminated load of food waste is delivered to the processor, the waste haulers are changed an additional fee
( ranging from $25.00 to $275.00) or the load is sent to the landfill.
The importance of compostable serviceware certification
Eugene businesses have the opportunity to include compostable plastic-ware by complying with current guidelines.
To avoid "greenwashing" the deceptive practice of branding sustainable products as sustainable,, anyone looking to use use compostable serviceware products in Eugene's system should read over this document and confirm that products purchased for use in the compostable service stream are certified as ASTM-
D6868 commercially compostable.
This is a field that changes rapidly. For this reason City Staff will update these guidelines once per year as needed. For specific questions regarding compostable products please contact Waste Prevention and Green Building Coordinator at 541-682-6842 or email Devereon.r.musgrave@ci.eugene.or.us
