Athens City Council members will discuss a proposed compost pilot program at council's meeting Monday night.
The program, proposed by Rural Action, would be implemented in May and would be limited to about 300 Athens residents, Andrea Reany, a representative from Rural Action, said at the March 12 council meeting.
Families who choose to participate in the pilot would be chosen on a first-come, first-serve basis, and the program would be evenly spread throughout Athens’ four wards. The program would be limited 50 to 75 people in each ward, she said.
The six-month pilot program would be free to participants. Participants would receive a 5 gallon bucket that they would be responsible for cleaning and putting out on the curb, similar to trash and recycling collection.
The compost would be collected by the Athens-Hocking Recycling Center, or AHRC. It would then be turned into soil amendment.
The pilot program would have a three-month recruitment period beginning in May that would include educational materials about the program.
After the recruitment period, the pilot program would last from August until January 2019. If successful, the citywide compost program would then be launched in April 2020, Reany said.
Reany said AHRC estimates the cost of the program at about $300,000 to $500,000.
Households that don’t want to participate in the full program would be able to opt out, Reany said.
