With a stagnant recycling rate, the city of South Portland is considering implementation of a curbside composting program.

South Portland’s recycling rate is at 29 percent “and I think food waste is the key,” said the city’s Sustainability Coordinator Julie Rosenbach at a Nov. 14 council workshop. Organic material, particularly food waste, makes up about 30 percent of the overall waste stream, she said.

As a way to encourage the recycling of food waste, Rosenbach has proposed the city conduct a curbside compost pilot project that would include nearly 600 households in the Meetinghouse Hill and Knightville neighborhoods.

The program would be conducted in collaboration with ecomaine and all participating households would be provided with 6-gallon countertop buckets with lids and liners to collect kitchen scraps such as coffee grounds, fruits and vegetables, grains and egg shells.

The buckets would be set out the same day as trash and recycling are collected now. The organic matter would be collected and the buckets left for the next week’s organic waste.

The material would be transported to Exeter-based Agri-Energy and Agri-Cycle Energy where the food would be composted in enclosed tanks and the gases that are released would be harnessed and reused.

Conducting the trial for a year will allow the city to collect data on how much impact the service has on the overall recycling rate, Rosenbach told councilors.

“We’re looking at uncovering two goals here,” she said. “To determine the viability of a city-wide program and (whether this is) going to be effective to reach a goal of a 40 percent recycling rate by 2020.”

The estimated cost of the pilot program is $45,000 to $71,000. The city would not charge residents for the buckets, but would have to hire a waste-hauling company to collect the material each week, according to Rosenbach.

Councilors were mostly in favor of the program, agreeing that composting should be part of how citizens discard their waste.

But some had issues with the food waste from South Portland being transported more than 100 miles away for disposal. And, Mayor Tom Blake said the amount of money it will cost the city to conduct a one-year trial might be better spent on outreach efforts that teach residents about backyard composting instead.

“I think there’s a better direction. It just seems to be a waste of resources to have a (truck) pick up the materials and drive 100 miles north … when this compost should never leave someone’s property,” Blake said.

Councilor Eben Rose also asked, “If the goal is to see how effective this is going to be to reduce waste streams” wouldn’t it be a better for the city to test this pilot program in areas like the Olde English Village apartments, “where they really don’t have any (composting) options at all?”

Councilor Claude Morgan agreed and said, “I think the real test is to find the virgin area where folks really are not engaged” in utilizing recycling services,

If the curbside composting pilot program is ultimately approved, the goal is to start the trial in the spring of 2017.

Six-gallon composting buckets would be added to curbside waste pickup in select neighborhoods of South Portland under a proposed pilot project.