CANTON - The pilot project launched by Canton’s Sustainability Committee to keep residential food scraps out of the waste stream continues at the drop-off location on outer Lincoln Street behind the Canton Pavilion.

Residents are encouraged to continue bringing their kitchen scraps to the drop off site, while the Village is considering an alternative site for the actual composting of the deposited waste.

Food waste deposited in the receptacles on outer Lincoln Street is transported to a site on Route 11 for the compost process.

“It’s a bit of a drive,” says Village Trustee and Sustainability Committee member Carol Pynchon, “and an additional layer of work for our DPW staff. We’re looking for someone – a farmer or large-scale grower – within a mile or two of the drop-off site who would like to receive the material for composting.”

At this time the composted material that is available to residents for free at the drop-off site is not the product of the collected food waste, but continues to be a combination of manure from the St. Lawrence University stables and leaves and brush the Village collects during residential curbside pick up.

The resulting organic matter is best used for mulch or top dressing for flowers, trees, herbs, and vegetables, or layered in with home compost.

For residents bringing food waste to the Lincoln Street drop-off site, the guidelines remain the same: most food scraps are acceptable, including meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, bones, eggs and eggshells, cheese, dairy products, bread, baked goods, pasta, rice, beans, nuts, seeds, vegetables and fruit, coffee grounds, table scraps, plate scrapings, and leftovers.

Strictly prohibited are household garbage, plastic, or paper, including packaging, fast food wrappers, takeout containers, and waxed paper. It is essential that participants in the project observe these guidelines.

A flyer containing information about how the program works, where to drop off food waste, and what is acceptable for composting can be found on the CantonNY.govwebsite at https://tinyurl.com/j9ezk2x9.

If you are interested in receiving and composting the food waste recovered at the Village site, please contact Trustee Carol Pynchon (cpynchon@cantonny.gov) or Village Superintendent Marty Miller (supt@cantonny.gov).