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ZERO Organic Waste
It's estimated that 40% of the "garbage" in our bins is food and yard debris. The contents of Whidbey garbage bins goes into a landfill down by the Columbia River, and costs for collecting and shipping waste off of Whidbey is expensive and going up, with significant economic and environmental impacts to us and the planet.
WCA supports zero organic waste in landfill. That means finding ways to keep the food and yard debris here, creating locally made compost for use on Whidbey.
As a part of this effort, WCA is actively monitoring and working on policy at the local and county levels, and supports groups that work toward zero organics in landfill.
Partners
WCA is working with other groups on the Island to tackle all aspects of locally recycling our organic materials for sustainability and resilience.
Background
Transforming Island County Organics from Waste to Resource
whitepaper
APPENDIX #1
Defining the Scope and Scale of Island County Organic Recovery
whitepaper
Growing Community Compost
presentation
Motivation
Ecological
Island County trucks an estimated 76 tons of organic material per day (in the garbage stream) to a landfill 400 miles away, where it decomposes releasing the potent GHG methane. Instead of hauling organics far away (burning diesel) they can be composted locally and the resulting compost used locally to grow food.​
Financial
Island County residents collectively spend nearly $11M to haul trash away. Given 40-50% of all IC trash is organic – vast system savings are achievable with a greater reliance on lower cost community-based distributive composting systems.
Legislative
“The state establishes a goal for the landfill disposal of organic materials at a level representing a 75 percent reduction by 2030 in the statewide disposal of organic material waste, relative to 2015 levels.” HB 1799 / 2022
Food Security
Local, quality compost will help Whidbey Island food system security and resilience.1799 / 2022
Policy ACTION
We are in the process of identifying specific policies on which we could take action.
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One Island County initiative that we will be tracking is the Solid Waste Management Plan due for revision in 2025 and covering the following 5 years.