DID YOU KNOW?

1. Batteries, lightbulbs, computers, TVs and tires can’t be thrown in your regular trash? Instead, drop off e-waste and tires to the City of New Orleans’ Department of Sanitation 2nd & 4th Saturday Recycling Drop Off location for free

2. Everything that goes down the storm drain goes into the Lake Pontchartrain or the Mississippi River unfiltered. If paint, oil, garbage, or literally anything other than water goes down the drain, it can contaminate local fish that we eat and waters we recreate in.

3. Pouring oil down the drain can clog your home’s pipes resulting in overflow or the city’s pipes resulting in flooding? Any oil should be placed in a container with a lid, sealed tight, and into the trash.

   
   

OUR CHALLENGE

Keep it local. Start incorporating local vendors into your normal buying habits. Got stuff to get rid of? Donate it to a local nonprofit or recycle it at no cost. One persons’ trash is another persons’ treasure. 

Still can’t find a place to reuse or recycle your goods? Make sure it is safely disposed of—avoid dumping and littering! Remember, whatever we put on our land goes into our water.

WHAT YOU CAN DO / WHO CAN HELP

1. Buy local.

   1. For groceries, try the New Orleans Food Co-Op or Crescent City Farmers’ Markets.

   2. For beer and spirits, try NOLA Brewing, Urban South, Port Orleans, Seven Three Distilling Co, or NOLA Distillery, to name a few. 

   3. For clothes, crafts, jewelry and gifts, try Zele, local art markets, or the numerous local shops on Magazine St. and the French Quarter.

2. Start recycling.

   1. Call 311 or visit Nola 311 online to set up a free curbside recycling bin.

   2. Drop off recyclables (glass, cardboard, plastic, aluminum, e-waste, tires, compost and more) at the City’s 2nd & 4th Saturday Recycling Drop Off events at no cost. Visit the Department of sanitations website and learn about drop off days / Department of Sanitation / 504-123-4567

   3. If you live in a building, own a business or run a school, you may be able to set up private recycling through Phoenix Recycling (504-458-4572), Republic Services (504-837-8950), or Waste Connections (only with existing account; 877-747-4374), Ryno Recycling (rynorecycling@gmail.com), to name a few.

3. Clean up your neighborhood.

   1. If you see litter, pick it up! Make sure it ends up securely in a trash receptacle so it doesn’t end up in a storm drain or local waterways. 

   2. Organize a community block clean up through Clean Up NOLA.

   3. Adopt a catch basin on your street and register it.

4. Donate usable goods to local organizations.

   1. Food: Second Harvest Food Bank

   2. Clothes: Bridgehouse / Restoration Thrift / Buffalo Exchange

   3. Housewares: Bridgehouse / Bloomin’ Deals (Junior League)

   4. Building Supplies and Home Goods: The Green Project / Habitat Restore

   5. Paint: The Green Project

   6. Cooking Oil: Big Easy Biofuel

   7. For more options, check out the New Orleans Recycling Guide

5. Start composting.

   1. Residential Compost pickup - Schmelly's Dirt Farm, Compost New Orleans Waste (NOW), The Composting Network

   2. Commercial/Restaurant Compost Pickup - Schmelly's Dirt Farm, The Composting Network

COMPOST DROP OFF DURING COVID-19 CLOSURES

1. Click here to view an interactive map of compost drop off sites during Covid-19 closures (hours and operations are subject to change).

2. Faubourg St. John Garden, 1101 N Dupre St. (bin is outside the gate on St. Phillip)

3. Hollygrove Community Garden, 8301 Olive St. (park on Olive and walk scraps to Schmelly's bins in the alley)

4. Church Alley Coffee Bar, 4201 Canal Blvd. Suite A (next to the front entrance on Solomon)

5. Levee Baking Co., 3138 Magazine St. (Saturdays only)

6. Fincacita Treasure Farm, 2720 Treasure St. (daily 2PM-6PM)

7. Enchanted Yam Garden, 1510 N Villere St. (every other Tuesday 5:30PM-7PM)

8. St Roch Community Drop Off, 2311 N Villere St. (Thursdays 5:30PM-7PM) 

9. Sugar Roots Farm, 10701 Willow Dr. (daily 9:30AM-3PM)

WHAT DO POLITICAL LEADERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR SECTOR?

1. Food scraps recovery and organics recycling (aka composting) is a growing industry nationally and one that can provide living wage jobs for low to medium-skilled workers.

2. Composting facilities are far cheaper to operate than landfills and incinerators and, when operating properly, have little to no impact on the air quality of nearby businesses and residences.

3. Commercial compost collection - especially given the sheer number of food businesses managing their waste in close quarters and a subtropical environment - has been proven to reduce odors by separating food scrap from trash receptacles which are not designed to handle leakage and decomposition and to reduce trash costs.

4. Composting is a rapid and cost-effective means to reduce methane and other greenhouse gas emissions, increase carbon storage in soils, and could have a substantial short-term impact on global warming. At the same time, compost can also restore depleted soils with nutrient-rich humus and organic matter, which is critical for urban food growing.

WHAT ARE YOUR LOCAL POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS?

1. Fund the Compost NOW residential collection program. This volunteer led project has been in operation for close to five years and is wildly popular. When the city reopens, it should be funding this low cost way of encouraging residents to remove their food scraps from their trash bins and back into a community resource.

2. Commercial Food Scrap Diversion. Tax incentives for local businesses that want to divert their food scraps from the landfill.

3. Compost procurement policy for municipal landscaping. Government agencies, business, and institutions are developing environmental procurement guidelines and policies that require the purchase of compost to enhance their construction and/or landscaping operations. In addition, more and more of these entities are specifying that the compost be purchased locally, which minimizes transportation impacts, creates demand in the local market for a sustainable compost product, and helps “close the loop” by turning waste into a recycled, value-added product (especially by potentially returning it to the same individuals that generated the original material).

4. Ban on Yard Trimmings in Landfills. In addition to implementing yard waste reduction strategies, such as grasscycling, some jurisdictions have banned yard trimmings from landfills. Where such bans exist, public waste management authorities often provide residents the option of curbside collection if the yard debris is “source-separated” from other waste or public drop-off locations. Landfill bans, coupled with publicly provided alternatives and self-reliant sustainable landscape strategies, drastically reduce the total waste stream. Thanks to these efforts, the EPA’s Sustainable Materials Management factsheet reported that yard trimmings had a recovery rate of 60% in 2013, or 20.6 million tons composted.

WHAT ARE YOUR STATE POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS?

Given the petrochemical industries inordinate influence on state politics and its economy, Louisiana could levy a tax from their single-use plastic facilities to fund research or pilot projects into compostable alternative packaging from non PFAS coated materials.

The Massachusetts State Organics Recovery Ban is a good starting point for the state (or Parish) - California also has a more restrictive ban which we do not support because it also makes it difficult for community level composters and privileges large scale commercial composting facilities. Many smaller local solutions to dealing with food waste is definitely the way to start. State would need to do more to ensure enforcement and compliance, by adequately funding that piece of the work, which has been an issue in MA.

That said, here is an overview of the Massachusetts Ban. You can read more here: https://ilsr.org/rule/food-scrap-ban/massachusetts-organics-recovery/

Generators will be prohibited from disposing, transferring for disposal, contracting for the disposal, or transporting commercial organic material.

Landfills, transfer facilities, and combustion facilities will be prohibited from accepting commercial organic material except to handle, recycle or compost this material in accordance with their individual MassDEP-approved Waste Ban Plan.

Targeted Generators

Under 310 CMR 19.003, Massachusetts regulations require “anyone disposing of, transferring for disposal, contracting for the disposal or transport of” commercial organic material to comply with the ban. Generation of a commercial level of organic waste is defined as those entities disposing of at least one ton per week of organic materials, even if done so only seasonally. Organic materials generated by residences are not included in this definition.

MassDEP’s guidance materials for the Commercial Organics Waste Ban give the following guidelines for some of the commercial and institutional generators who may be affected by the ban, based on generic sector-based estimates:

1.     Residential Colleges or Universities with + 730 students

2.     Non-residential Colleges or Universities with + 2,750 students

3.     Secondary Schools with + 4,000 students

4.     Hospitals with + 80 beds

5.     Nursing Homes with + 160 beds

6.     Restaurants with + 70 or more full time employees

7.     Resort/Conference Properties with + 475 seats

8.     Supermarkets with + 35 full time employees.

Anticipated Benefits

Focus on Organics Diversion (FOOD), a consortium of industry associations working in Massachusetts, anticipates the ban will:

1.     Make MA a leader in sustainable waste management

2.     Make use of existing composting industry/facilities (>200 already exist)

3.     Continue to build and stimulate investment in existing composting industry

4.     Create new in-state jobs in renewable energy

5.     Keep money, usually spent on out-of-state recycling, in-state

6.     Capture a currently unused, yet valuable resource to improve soil quality, support agriculture, and conserve water

7.     Reduce greenhouse gas emissions due to less waste going to landfills

Building Processing Capacity

In an effort to further encourage organics recycling capacity in Massachusetts, the state government offers various forms of financial assistance and incentives, such as municipal grants through the Sustainable Materials Recovery Program (SMRP). These and other programs began in 2014, when the administration of Governor Patrick announced the availability of up to $3 million in low interest loans for private development and up to $1 million in grants for public development of anaerobic digester capacity in Massachusetts. Additional grants and loans are available to support the expansion of composting capacity.

WHAT ARE YOUR FEDERAL POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS?

Ban on single use plastic for take out/to go containers.

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