Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** the city of plano's…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** the city of plano's sustainability & environmental education division (SEED) is tasked with developing and delivering education and outreach to plano residents on sustainability topics including waste minimization and composting. Over the years, plano residents have approached SEED to request residential food waste composting services in addition to the yard waste composting services offered by the city. SEED performed research to determine a residential food scrap community composting framework that would be feasible to conduct as a pilot project in plano and applied for a solid waste implementation grant from the north central texas council of governments (NCTCOG) in 2022. A grant was awarded, and the city of plano residential food scrap composting pilot project commenced in january 2023.the goals of the program are to divert food scraps from the landfill, reduce the negative environmental impacts associated with the landfilling of food scraps including both landfill greenhouse gas emissions and upstream resource consumption associated with the cultivation, production, transportation, etc. Of wasted food and cultivate community norms food waste reduction and composting. Plano residents collect food scraps at home and drop off those scraps at any of the eight collection sites across the city for composting by a commercial composter.during the pilot period(january 2023 to june 2023), 39,960 pounds of food waste were diverted from the landfill, resulting in an avoidance of 10,875 kilograms of CO2 equivalents (epawarm model). The program had reached a subscribership exceeding the level that was defined in the grant application, indicating success. The term of grant endedon june 15, 2023. A limited amount of funds areavailable to continue the program while future funding is identified. The city is seeking funding under the USDA composting and food waste reduction (CFWR) project to continue to expand the program, with the overarching goals of (1)increasing awareness and benefits of the various food waste reduction strategies including, but not limited to, source reduction and composting and (2) increasing both single-family home and multifamily residential participation in the city's residential food scrap composting pilot program. The city proposes to continue administering the program as was successfully done under the NCTCOG grant, expanding as needed. The city also proposes to build on its library of educational programs on food waste reduction strategies by developing educational programming for all ages and an online learning module for teens and adults that will target the top source reduction tier of the EPA food waste hierarchy.