City Council subcommittee moves forward on citywide composting ordinance

By Barbara Taormina

REVERE – The City Council’s Subcommittee on Climate, Sustainability, and Workforce voted to move a proposal for an ordinance on citywide composting to a public hearing.

Ward 5 Councillor Angela Guarino-Sawaya, who co-sponsored the motion for citywide composting with Subcommittee Chairman Juan Pablo Jaramillo, said she is thrilled with the proposal. “Anyone who cares about the environment will vote yes for this,” said Guarino-Sawaya. “It will save the city millions and millions of dollars.”

She also said composted material – “a dark, crumbly, earthy-smelling, biologically stable soil amendment” – will help shoreline neighborhoods. Compost, which consists of food scraps and other organic waste, is an effective way to deal with flooding because it absorbs more water than existing soil.

Ward 1 Councillor Joanne McKenna, who also serves on the subcommittee, was equally positive about the program. “Every other city is doing it,” she said. “Why not us?”

According to the proposal, 30 percent of all waste that ends up in landfills or incinerators can be composted. Ash and emissions from Win Waste have been a health concern for residents, particularly for those who live in wards 1 and 5. The proposal on the table asks that Mayor Patrick Keefe invest $125,000 “from a mix of mitigation money, including mitigation monies from the traditional waste disposal programs, the general fund, or state, federal, or private grants, offsetting funds, toward creating and maintaining a partially or fully subsidized curb-side composting program for residents of Revere.”

The city will track the number of participants, tonnage of waste diverted from regular waste programs, money saved by the city and money spent by residents to participate.

Former City Council candidate and community activist Anthony Parziale asked if the city could pick up the cost of the program since its saving money for the city. “Why should people pay?” he asked.

The proposal also calls for opening a revolving account for any savings from composting and to use any money deposited to fund and expand curbside composting.

Another resident asked if the Board of Health has weighed in on the composting proposal. He said there may be concerns about rats and disease. He also suggested that containers for compost, which will be provided to participants, should be made of metal rather than plastic because rats are able to bite through plastic.

Jaramillo said he thought composting containers would be similar to trash and recycling containers.

A member of the Winthrop chapter of Clean Water Action, which mounts campaigns on a variety of local environmental issues, said that composting in Winthrop has not led to any health or rodent issues. She added that the federal Environmental Protection Agency has a grant program for start-up composting that could offset local costs.

Former DPW superintendent and Ward 4 Councillor Paul Argenzio said he is in full support of the composting program, adding that anything that will divert waste out of the waste stream is a positive move.