Legislators urge progress on compost siting and food-scrap diversion

Members of the Parks and Environment Committee stressed composting and food-scrap diversion as clear opportunities to reduce landfill waste and greenhouse-gas emissions. Erica Pierce asked whether the White Plains composting facility and other regional options were included in the repository and encouraged design templates for municipalities; Peter McCart confirmed the site includes composting entries and said the county had run a survey but struggled to secure responses from some towns.

Pierce reiterated that until Westchester reduces food scraps in the trash the county is missing an important emissions-reduction step: "But until Westchester can get to the point where we are not throwing any of our food scraps in the trash, we we we are missing an easy well, maybe easy is not the right word, but a clear step." McCart said the compost siting study is currently held up and did not provide a timeline.