Updated Nov. 22
Oak Bluffs is ramping up its efforts to handle food waste generated in town, agreeing to pursue a multimillion-dollar grant to build a commercial-scale food processing plant as well as to look into starting a residential composting program.
On Tuesday, Nov. 12, the Oak Bluffs select board unanimously approved sending a letter of intent to pursue $2.25 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling grant program to build a composting facility at the town’s transfer station. The grant would help meet state regulations requiring businesses like hospitals and restaurants to divert food waste from the trash stream.
Additionally, the board voted to refer a proposal from Island Grown Initiative (IGI) to install a rapid composter — a machine that creates soil amendment, which can be added to soil to improve its properties, through intense heat — at the town’s drop-off station to the town’s capital committee; the board noted that it favored the idea “in principle.”
The two measures follow the shutdown of the only large-scale organic waste processing program on the Island in September, which has forced more waste to be transported off-Island. The pilot program run by IGI in Vineyard Haven closed after the in-drum food processing machine couldn’t match the growing demand, and kept breaking down.
Applying for the EPA grant has been an effort nearly two years in the making, board member Emma Green-Beach said.
“This might be our last chance for this [grant] for a while,” she said, reflecting the concern of some board members that environmental funding will evaporate under the upcoming Trump presidency.
The composting service wouldn’t be for the whole Island. Woody Filley, manager of the Martha’s Vineyard Vision Fellowship Organics Project, and part of the town’s grant process, said the commercial composter would be able to handle around 1,000 tons of organic waste per year, whereas the Vineyard produces approximately 6,500 tons of food waste annually. He also said the hope is to make a more “decentralized” composting model, so it wouldn’t be just one area where businesses take their food waste.
Filley said they would also have to go out to bid for a contractor to run the facility. Oak Bluffs town administrator Deborah Potter said this would limit the costs sustained by the town.
Meanwhile, Sophie Abrams Mazza, the community food waste educator from IGI, proposed installing an EcoRich food composter at the Oak Bluffs local drop-off operation to handle residential food waste.
The machine applies heat to break down food waste, Mazza said, which then produces soil amendment that can be used in gardens. Mazza said the composter can process around 500 pounds of food waste a day, which adds up to around 90 tons annually.
Mazza emphasized that increasing on-Island composting options would bring economic and climate benefits. She said roughly 230 trucks transported food waste off-Island per year, costing money and contributing to carbon emissions.
Purchasing and installing the machine is estimated to cost $74,550, with an estimated annual maintenance cost of less than $10,312.
Mazza said the program would essentially “pay for itself” by eliminating the $10,286.25 from hauling food waste, and an additional $2,200 from the MassDEP’s recycling dividends program could be brought in. Additionally, she pointed out that the town could give the soil amendment to local farms, or sell the amendment produced.
She also said grant opportunities are being explored by IGI for the installation of the composter.
Board member Dion Alley underscored a need to make it clear on how the program would be run, whether it would be only for Oak Bluffs residents, or if it would require individuals from other towns to purchase dump stickers to access the machine.
“I know we’re an Island community, but when this is taxpayer money, I want to make sure the taxpayers are taken care of first,” he said.
Potter and Oak Bluffs assistant town administrator Wendy Brough both said alternative residential composting units should also be explored, to be “financially responsible.” The project would also require a town meeting vote.
After further discussion, the board voted to refer it to the capital committee.
Updated with clarifications from Sophie Abrams Mazza.
