Rhode Island’s Landfill Is Filling Up Fast. Localities Have a Solution

Three Rhode Island communities are the first in the state to test out municipalitywide curbside composting — a service they hope will become the norm. Bristol, Barrington and Newport launched two-year pilots last fall that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save the municipalities money and stave off the day when the state’s landfill reaches maximum capacity.

“We only have one landfill and it’s due to reach capacity in 2046. Once that happens, we don’t have anywhere else to send our trash,” says Stella Piasecki, compost program coordinator at the Eastern Rhode Island Conservation District, which is heavily involved in the composting pilots.

Rhode Island isn’t the only state struggling with maxed-out landfills. Just over the border, Connecticut no longer has any permanent, active landfills for household trash, and started shipping 40 percent of its municipal solid waste to other states’ landfills in 2023. Connecticut is also hoping composting can divert food scraps from landfills. New York City phased in mandatory composting from 2022-2024 to reduce greenhouse gases, and Tennessee has been considering encouraging recycling to slow the fill of its own landfills.

Piasecki estimates that food waste comprises 35 percent of what Rhode Islanders send to landfills each year.

How It Works

The projects were organized by the nonprofit Eastern Rhode Island Conservation District, and they’re funded by local environment-focused philanthropy 11th Hour Racing. The organization awarded $215,000 to Barrington and $150,000 to Bristol to help fund the program (Newport did not publish their grant amount publicly). The money mostly goes to provide customers with discounted service fees during the pilot, and to create promotional materials to get residents interested in composting. Herb Durfee, Barrington’s director of planning, building and resilience, says his town also contributes several thousand dollars.

Residents opt in and receive a bin for their food waste, which they can then leave at their curb for weekly collection. They can compost everything from fruit peels to meat, dairy and paper towels. If they want, residents can receive a free bag of composted soil every spring to use for landscaping or gardening.

The programs launched in September and by January Bristol had signed up 232 people and diverted 12 tons of food waste into composting; Barrington signed on 330 and diverted 21 tons, per Piasecki. Newport, a larger municipality, has signed on 873 people since its October launch.

Choosing a Model

The pilots have a few key differences. While Newport is providing free composting to up to 1,500 residents, Barrington and Bristol offer the first 500 residents who sign up a steeply discounted price for the first year, then a smaller discount in the second year. (More people can participate, but get only a slight price reduction.)

Durfee wanted participants to pay something. The grant money from 11th Hour Racing will only fund the pilot; after that, residents who want to continue to compost will have to pay the composting company directly. Getting residents used to paying could avoid sticker shock down the road, Durfee says, while gradually reducing discount sizes gives residents time to prepare for taking on the full price.

“My greatest fear was that if we had a program that was free for two years, at the end of two years, we would lose a lot of accounts,” Durfee says. “So, by having some buy-in and stake in the game, we would have less people dropping out.”

Localities pay a $63 tipping fee for each ton of waste deposited into the landfill. Because Barrington won’t be taking on costs of running the composting service, each diverted ton of organic waste means net savings for the municipality. Piasecki hopes municipalities might consider redirecting such savings into subsidizing residents’ service fees or other continued support for the programs.

Some towns that institute local composting programs acquire their own food scrap collection vehicles, while others follow the Rhode Island town’s model of outsourcing everything. For Barrington, it was important not to assume the operations, because the town lacks staff time for the additional administrative work, Durfee says. Instead, the Eastern Rhode Island Conservation District handles that, while town staff promote the program.

Piasecki says some smaller towns favor giving residents a central drop-off spot to bring their compost, while larger communities believe curbside is more convenient for residents and avoids a big crowd at a drop-off spot. Barrington is using the curbside service to supplement an existing drop-off program with a local farm school.

New York City made composting mandatory, but Durfee didn’t want to go in that direction, both because of the administrative work involved and because some residents may not be able to afford a new expense associated with composting. Piasecki says costs are the biggest hurdles to getting composting programs off the ground.

“We live in a very expensive world, and it’s sometimes hard to get people to want to pay for something additional,” she says. “So we’re really trying to educate residents about the benefits of composting.”