by Kristen Wile

Diverting food waste from landfills has gotten much easier for Charlotte residents over the past several years. As of this month, residents of Mecklenburg County can save up their food scraps to drop off at two of the area’s full service recycling centers, Hickory Grove and Compost Central. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, nearly a quarter of solid waste consists of food waste. In landfills, food scraps and organic waste are covered with nonorganic waste, making it slow to break down and releasing methane gas in the process. Diverting food waste and allowing it to compost helps provide much-needed nutrients back into the soil in addition to limiting what heads to the landfill.

The full-service recycling centers take all food scraps, including meat and dairy. However, they do not accept compostable packaging. Additional drop-off points are expected to become available this summer.

The ability to drop off food scraps for free gives residents another avenue of reducing food waste in landfills. Crown Town Compost was a pioneer in Charlotte, first picking up food scraps from restaurants and later growing to include residential collection — and most recently, launching a landscaping business that includes the creation of edible gardens. Crown Town offers pickup services and the ability for customers to drop off full buckets of food scraps to their Innovation Barn headquarters or other local collection point.

Scrap Daddy, a newer business in the area, offers a similar service with various pickup options. In addition to residential and business composting, however, Scrap Daddy also helps make events more sustainable by providing organic waste collection bins and then composting that waste. At the 2024 Charlotte StrEATs Festival, for example, more than 253 pounds of organic matter was diverted from the landfill, creating more than 100 pounds of compost.

City living can be tight on space, making residential pickup a convenient way to live more sustainably. If you’ve got a large enough yard, however, you can always simply create your own compost pile. Here’s how to get started.