Officials launch game-changing program to keep food from winding up in trash: 'Really exciting'

The city of Livingston, Montana, is jumping aboard the composting train. Best of all, it is staying close to home by teaming up with a local couple's company, Happy Trash Can, to do the honors.

The new two-year pilot project was formalized in a memorandum of understanding (MOU), as The Livingston Enterprise reported. The MOU calls for the city to provide a space in the city's transfer station while supplying necessary electricity, non-potable water, operations assistance, and access to the company.

Both residential and commercial food scraps will be processed, but the facility will reject plastics, metals, or hazardous waste. The city will pay rates of $25 per cubic yard for processed compost and $15 per cubic yard for final screened compost, per the MOU. City commissioners approved the measure by a 4-0 vote with one commissioner absent.

"Having composting available to all city residents is really exciting," Commissioner Karrie Kahle told The Enterprise. "It's been in the works for a few years."

Getting to collaborate with a proven local company is also a big plus. Happy Trash Can teamed up with Livingston Farmers Market in 2019 to provide composting. By 2021, the partnership trimmed the market's garbage by a robust 65%, per The Enterprise.

Happy Trash Can collects over 2.5 million pounds of food scraps annually from neighborhoods such as Bozeman, according to its website. That number only figures to go up with a new city formally joining the fold as a customer.

Livingston's moves are in line with a move to bring convenient composting to cities around the country. New York City instilled mandatory composting, and the early returns are positive, with rat sightings dropping every month and demand for bins on the rise, according to the New York City Department of Sanitation.

The composting movement can play a major role in countering America's staggering food waste problem. Composting diverts food waste from methane-producing landfills and can help turn the waste into a material that can help new plants. It's also easy to practice at home if your municipality doesn't offer pickup.

For Livingston, the partnership with Happy Trash Can is a no-brainer.

"That's like the ultimate winning in a procurement agreement," Commission Vice Chair Melissa Nootz declared to The Enterprise. "It's a local company doing it at a citywide scale."