Eric Grabowsky, the acting chief of Arlington County’s solid waste bureau is working on a new composting initiative to help reduce food waste. The average food waste generated by Arlington County residents alone is estimated to be 3,000-6,000 tons. The county has decided to try curbside composting in addition to the trash and recycling services that are traditionally offered. Arlington committed to reducing 90% of the waste that goes to landfills by 2038 in 2015 and this composting program is forecasted to significantly help that initiative. Arlington is not the first county to make this effort and will be one of the few counties working to compost food scraps and use them as soil in the U.S. However, many other counties have also experienced many difficulties in making door-to-door composting work. One of the biggest issues is not having a facility that can compost such a large amount and creating one of those facilities may not be cost effective. There are many large cities like New York and San Francisco who have adopted the curbside compost method and it has proven to significantly decrease and divert the waste headed for landfills. However this method is costly and not attainable to many other counties with less resources. 

For more information: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-14/america-s-uphill-trudge-to-universal-curbside-composting