D.C. Doesn't Compost

If you are one of the many gardeners in the District of Columbia wondering where you can get hold of municipal compost, you needn't wonder any more. It doesn't exist. The District of Columbia does not compost.

You know all the leaves the city picks up in the fall? Well, it seems to depend what year it is where they end up. In the past, they usually went to a landfill. In recent years, the city has been experimenting with compost options, sending some of the leaves to Oak Hill, MD, site of the District's juvenile detention facility. Some of the leaves apparently have recently been going to Pogo Organics outside Olney, MD, but officials were unable to say whether leaves taxpayers are paying to dispose of are turning up in that compost Pogo is selling in the handy 5-gallon buckets at Whole Foods.

In the works we are told is a possible composting enterprise in conjunction with the University of the District of Columbia at a facility in Belltsville, MD. But as of today, you cannot obtain compost from the District.

All this comes via William Howland, the city's Public Works director, who was invited to speak on the subject of recycling last night at a meeting of the Chevy Chase Citizens Association.  Barbara Baldwin, a founding member of D.C. Urban Gardeners, arranges these Chevy Chase garden events. They are always spot on.

According to Howland, all of the District's trash goes to a landfill outside Fredericksberg, VA.  Recycled items, meanwhile, are sent to a processing center in Columbia, MD. Only recently, Howland said, has it become cheaper for the city to dispose of recycled goods than general trash. The city now pays $60 per ton to dispose of trash, compared to $16 a ton for recyclables. Most of the difference, he said, is due to the rising value of aluminum cans.

Yet there doesn't seem to be any urgency on the city's part to start composting. Most jurisdictions are desperate to compost the organic portion of their trash, such as kitchen scraps, because it can constitute up to 30 percent of the waste stream. Some jurisdictions even give away compost bins to encourage citizens to turn their garbage into soil amendment. Howland was unable to say how much of the city's trash consists of compostable organic matter. Nor is there any plan to compost it.

Howland looked genuinely stricken when it was pointed out that you can order compost delivered to your garden in the District from the City of College Park, MD, where they do take composting seriously.

Really, isn't it time the nation's capitol gets with the program?

--Posted by Ed Bruske