Homer residents and businesses are continuing to investigate ways to implement a composting pilot program for the area as a way to cut the costs of transferring solid waste to Soldotna’s landfill.
Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly Member Willy Dunne, who represents the areas that surround Homer, says a few years ago the borough studied how composting at the landfill would decrease costs.
Asmb. Dunne: “That was before I was on the Assembly but back then there was consideration of doing a pilot project at the Homer Landfill but there were quite a few capital project expenses involved, you’d have to build a facility, you’d have to purchase equipment, and it looked like the consultant’s estimate was going to run expensive, upwards of $3 million to start a composting facility.”
He says recently local businesses approached the borough to find a different way of implementing the idea, this time partnering with local farmers who compost already instead of having a compost area at the landfill.
Asmb. Dunne: “Collect food waste at local businesses here in Homer, restaurants, other facilities, we’re talking with the hospital about collecting food waste there. The food waste would be collected in special dumpsters and then delivered to the site where they’d be composted. The idea would be it would reduce the amount of waste going into the Homer Landfill and thus save money because it costs us money to transfer solid waste from the Homer Landfill up to Soldotna.”
Dunne says in this preliminary idea, the borough’s role would be to fund the transportation of the composting materials to whatever farm/farms involved. He says if a formal proposal is put together it would include a Request for Proposal for a private company to handle that transportation.
Dunne says members of Borough administration seem interested and if the idea becomes a pilot program they may be able to see if other areas of the peninsula are interested in similar programs.