If Slippery Rock Borough could reduce the amount of waste it sends to the landfill while cutting the cost of waste collection services, and without reducing the amount of waste it produces, wouldn't that be great? The borough should at least be interested in the idea, because landfills disrupt surrounding ecosystems and water tables, they produce about 25 percent of national emissions of methane (a greenhouse gas hundreds of times more potent than carbon dioxide), and, well, everyone likes to save money. State College Borough in Centre County has chosen to take advantage of such a possibility, simply by composting its food waste instead of sending it to the landfill. About 40 percent of State College's landfilled waste is potentially compostable, and the borough council has decided that it is worth the effort, in terms of avoided environmental damage and saved money that otherwise would go toward putting compostable waste into landfills, to invest in a food waste composting service. Like Slippery Rock, State College has composted leaf waste for years. It also has composted grass clippings. Over the next few years, food wastes from grocers, restaurants and residents will be added to that composting operation. The higher-quality compost that will result will be sold at higher prices to landscapers and others, in order to keep the cost of the waste collection low. Slippery Rock also has a composting site that is closer than any landfill — Slippery Rock University's Makoskey Center, where leaf waste from the borough and food waste from SRU currently are composted. Given that other communities, such as State College, are beginning to compost their food wastes instead of landfilling them, might a food waste recycling program for Slippery Rock Borough be something worth looking into?
