Expanding Our Curbside Composting Program
Dear Prince Georgians:
Today, we hosted a press conference to announce the official expansion of our curbside composting program, PGC Composts, to an additional 65,000 residents who will be able to compost “Every meal. Every scrap. Every Monday.” This extra weekly waste collection service allows residents to sustainably dispose of food scraps and food-related items in addition to their yard trim on Mondays. Now, after residents throw a big cookout with crabs over the weekend, they will be able to get rid of those crab shells immediately on Mondays.
Starting the week of November 7, eligible residents in north, central, and south County will receive a wheeled green cart and kitchen pail to collect their food scraps and yard trim for Monday pickup. Residents will also receive educational materials to support the successful preparation of materials, which will include a How-To Guide, a refrigerator magnet listing acceptable food and paper items, a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), and a list of acceptable compostable bags/liners if you choose to line your wheeled cart. Residents can find the English and Spanish language versions of these documents online at mypgc.us/compost.
PGC Composts accepts your everyday food scraps, including fruits and vegetables, dairy products, bread and pasta, meat and bones, pizza boxes, seafood, shellfish like Maryland crabs, and pumpkins, in addition to yard trim. Items that are not accepted and can contaminate your compost include leftover grease or any liquids, plastic, Styrofoam™, diapers, pet waste, and household trash or litter. A list of acceptable and unacceptable items can be found at mypgc.us/compost.
Our team at the Department of the Environment will manage the curbside composting program as part of our Clear the Curb waste collection services that include trash, recycling, and our new and improved curbside bulky trash collection. Residents not receiving wheeled carts in the 2022 cycle will receive them in 2023. Residents who currently participate in the County’s curbside composting program will not receive an additional cart or materials during this next phase of our rollout.
I know that the idea of composting may be a new one to some residents. Some of you may be asking why this extra service is even necessary. I can tell you that composting is important because it helps strengthen the local economy, it reduces waste, it combats the impacts of climate change, and it protects our environment.
You may be surprised to learn that food scraps and yard trim make up most of the waste produced by County households for regular trash pickup. In fact, right now County residents are disposing of nearly 60,000 tons of food in the County landfill every year. That is a problem, because when food goes to the landfill it breaks down into methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that is contributing to climate change.
If we instead send that food to be composted utilizing the world-class technology at the Prince George’s County Organics Composting Facility, we prevent the production of that methane gas. PGC Composts will help us divert over a third of the waste currently going to the landfill and reduce harmful greenhouse gas production. It also helps us produce Leafgro Gold®, a rich soil nutrient and natural fertilizer, which creates revenue for the County.
Unfortunately, we know that the impacts of climate change are already on our doorstep. Scientists have said that three of the six warmest years on record have taken place in the last three years. We’ve experienced an increase in extremely destructive hurricanes and tropical storms. We’ve witnessed an increase in sweeping wildfires and devastating flooding. In Prince George’s, we are experiencing 100-year floods every two years, and this past summer, we experienced a tornado and a microburst within a month.
As our air quality decreases, we are seeing a rise in cases of childhood asthma and other cardiovascular ailments. Rising air temperatures and carbon dioxide levels have led to increased pollen production, causing significant allergy issues. Pollution of our waterways has led to an increase in waterborne diseases.
Climate change is no longer just a concern for our future – it is a present danger and it’s growing worse by the day. We also know it has an even greater impact on Black and brown communities like ours.
I know our residents have asked for additional days for waste collection, and the truth of the matter is, this is not an issue we will solve by putting more trucks on the road to haul more trash to our landfills. In fact, it will only make things worse. We can’t afford to go backwards in terms of waste collection, and we are not going to sit still and watch nothing improve. We are going to protect our health and our environment, and forge ahead with more efficient, environmentally friendly solutions – solutions like PGC Composts.
By now, I know you are aware of our County beautification efforts. PGC Composts complements our efforts to preserve the natural beauty of our community and make Prince George’s County look like the Crown Jewel of Maryland that it is. Many of you have taken part in our Growing Green with Pride community cleanup days, and right now our unprecedented 120-day litter and mowing blitz is ongoing. After 6 weeks, we have already collected 304 tons of litter, mowed over 1,900 acres of grass, and completed street sweeping on 618 miles of County roadways.
I want to encourage you to continue taking an active part in keeping our County clean, because we know litter does not grow like grass. It’s up to us to take pride in our home. That’s why we also need your participation in PGC Composts as well. It’s up to us to take pride in our County AND our environment. As we move forward with this new program, we can lead others to help fight climate change. We can set the national standard for how jurisdictions manage waste in an environmentally friendly manner.
People will look at Prince George’s County and see that greatness grows here, not litter and pollution. Climate change is a global issue, but people will see our example and understand that one County can make a world of difference. So, I’m asking residents to please take part in this initiative and show the world how Prince George’s Proud we are to be good stewards of our environment.
Yours in service,
Angela Alsobrooks
Prince George’s County Executive
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