For the next two months — and maybe longer — Naperville residents will be able to drop off food scraps and yard waste at two compost locations in town.
As of this week, the city is allowing compost drop-offs at its compressed natural gas filling station at 1720 W. Jefferson Ave and the former park-and-ride lot at 91st Street and Wolf’s Crossing Road.
The locations, which will be open through Dec. 15, are an expansion of Naperville’s existing composting program. It’s a pilot initiative for now but may continue next year depending on demand, officials say.
Over the past few years, the city has partnered with Groot Industries to supply residents with compost collection services.
Up until this week, collection had been managed on a household-by-household basis and lets residents opt in to a weekly collection program managed by Groot. A 65-gallon or 95-gallon cart can be rented annually from the company for $194.25 or $236.25, respectively, which residents use to combine food scraps and regular yard waste in one container.
It does not impact the regular yard waste collection program through which property owners use 32-gallon bags or a clearly labeled 32-gallon cans to be picked up on their regular trash collection days.
The compost pick-up program runs from mid-March to mid-December.
By adding a drop-off option to the program, the city is hoping to make composting more accessible to all residents, Naperville Sustainability Manager Ben Mjolsness said.
“The existing program has been great,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of participation in both the bagged yard waste and combined cart service for yard and food waste. But I’ve continued to listen to people in the community that want to see more opportunities. Maybe they’re concerned about the cost of subscribing to the cart service.”
The more the city can “reduce the barrier to entry, the better,” Mjolsness said.
“What better way than a free service that, if they choose to, (allows residents) to collect stuff and make their way to either of the two (drop-off) sites to participate?” he said.
Composting is the process of recycling organic materials into matter that can be used to enrich soil and plants, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Environmental Protection Agency calls composting “nature’s way of recycling.” It is one of the most powerful actions people can take to reduce trash, address climate change and build healthy soil, the EPA says.
Municipal solid waste landfills are the third-largest source of planet-warming methane emissions from human activities in the country, with food waste comprising about 24% of that waste, per the EPA. Due to its quick decay rate, food waste in landfills is contributing more to methane emissions than any other landfilled materials, the EPA says.
“If people do not either eat, donate or compost their food waste, it typically goes to the landfill where it’s essentially buried forever and will break down to create more methane emissions,” Mjolsness said.
Composting, meanwhile, is “a great way to harness those nutrients” already in food waste and “turn it into something that is beneficial for plant life and for biodiversity,” he said.
He’s excited to see how Naperville’s expanded compost program will be received by residents, he said.
Drop-off locations will provide 25 to 30 carts for residents to dispose of their compost. Materials accepted include standard yard waste and compostable food, including fruits, vegetables, pastas, breads, crackers and cereals. Meat products and bones will not be accepted.
Groot will track the volumes of material collected, and the city will use that data to determine if and how it should continue or grow the drop-off program in 2025.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to relaunch again come springtime,” Mjolsness said. “And who knows, maybe we can even expand it based on participation rates with the pilot.”
A map of pilot composting sites can be found at www.naperville.il.us/yardwaste.
