POLAND — The town of Poland is the latest community in the Lakes Region to embrace food scrap composting at the transfer station under the We Compost It! program.

Beginning July 1, Poland residents will begin filling orange and green compost bins at the Poland transfer station with leftover vegetable trimmings, coffee grounds, fruit rinds, bones and meat scraps to be converted to compost.

We Compost It! collects the food scraps from businesses, restaurants, hospitals, schools and transfer stations and transforms them into Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association-approved compost at its facility in Poland. The nutrient-rich compost will be used by gardeners, landscapers and farmers to feed local growing soils.

Regional School Unit 16 launched a successful cafeteria composting program at all five schools on April 1 that dramatically boosted recycling rates and has saved on waste disposal costs, as well as providing hands-on educational lessons to youth as part of their daily lunchtime routine.

“Our transition to a composting culture within our schools was remarkably smooth and issue-free,” said RSU 16 Operations Director John Hawley. “Our composting program with We Compost It! is projected to save the school district $3,500 annually by removing approximately 45 tons from our more-costly waste stream. Our program is truly offering an educational opportunity to the next generation that will have to be very proactive with environmental issues.”

Poland Town Manager Bradley Plante also sees composting as a way to reduce waste. “Composting our food scraps offers a huge opportunity for our town to boost our recycling rate and, over time, to reduce our municipal solid waste costs,” said Poland Town Manager Bradley Plante. “The program is simple. All our residents need to do is to collect their food scraps in a separate bucket and dump it into the compost totes when they arrive at the transfer station.”

Compostable kitchen scraps typically comprise more than 35 percent of the average household’s total waste stream. Food waste is costly to manage within the traditional waste management system, because organic wastes are the heaviest component, resulting in high disposal costs at landfills and waste-to-energy facilities.

Mechanic Falls residents have been participating in the We Compost It! program at the transfer station since March.

“The pioneering work of We Compost It! has set the stage for rural food diversion efforts,” said Mechanic Falls transfer station manager Kathryn Oak. “We were able to adopt a food diversion process at our transfer station with ease, thanks to the setup assistance we received from WCI. Our residents now separate their organics for composting as fluidly as they recycle.”

“The growing momentum for composting in the Lakes Region is exciting, and We Compost It! is a proud partner in these trend-setting programs,” said Brett Richardson, general manager of We Compost It! “Along with Norway and Paris, Mechanic Falls and Poland are leading the way. Our successful partnership with RSU 16 means composting is taking root with the region’s future leaders.”

For more information about the composting program, contact Brett Richardson at (207) 272-0896 or visit www.wecompostit.com.