Island-wide Food Waste Composting Feasibility Study is Completed

An Island-Wide Organics Composting Feasibility study was conducted between March 2016 and May 2017. The study examined issues around food waste recycling on the Island and developed recommendations for local food waste management. The Martha’s Vineyard Vision Fellowship organized an oversight committee and funded the study partly in response to the impending enforcement of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection’s commercial food waste ban that targets food operations generating one ton or more of organic waste per week. The ban requires businesses to separate and repurpose or compost this waste. The Island generates an estimated 6,500 tons of food waste annually, but has no public composting facility and no comprehensive plan for local processing.

To read the full report, click here: FINAL Feasibility Study Report. For the much shorter summary version, click here: Composting Study Summary Report May 2017.