Vermonters Are Complying With Composting Law, Which Means … A Lot Of Food Scraps

South Burlington resident Isaac Colby operates Some Dude’s Compost Company and is one of the small food scrap haulers seeing a boom in business since Vermont’s landfill ban on household food scraps took effect July 1. (Liam Elder-Connors/VPR)

The state’s new law that bans household food scraps in landfills went into effect on July 1. Vermonters are getting on board with the new system, which means transfer stations are struggling to keep up and new businesses are popping up to haul the food scraps to composting facilities.

For the past three months or so, Tom Roberts has been taking his food scraps to his transfer station in Londonderry. But he’s not happy about it.

“I think it’s a big pain in the neck,” Roberts said. “I think it’s a foolish law.”

He says his compost creates a stinking mess at home, and he thinks this stuff belongs in the landfill.

“My wife hates it more than me,” Roberts said. ”So, you know, it’s not a good thing.”

But… it’s the law. So when Saturday rolls around, Roberts drives over with his plastic tub filled with food scraps, and he dumps them into one of the bins here.

Read the rest of this story at VPR’s website.