Food scrap collection program coming to Quaker Valley

A curbside food scrap collection program is coming to the Quaker Valley this month.

Kyle Winkler of Pittsburgh’s North Side was able to garner enough support through a Kickstarter effort to bring his Zero Waste Wrangler service to Sewickley, Glen Osborne and Edgeworth.

Fundraising began mid-April and was last updated June 25. The site shows 129 backers pledged $27,383, exceeding the $25,000 goal, to help bring this project to life. Backers included about 40 people who donated and did not sign up for the program.

The additional money will cover Kickstarter fees and buy routing software to boost customer service.

“I’m encouraged by the fact that it allows folks that talk about doing good things put their money where their mouth is,” Winkler said about the fundraising.

He said 88 residents within the three communities have signed up to receive weekly service, which is scheduled to begin July 22.

Food waste collected will be sent to AgRecycle to be composted. Compost distribution would be in the fall.

This is the first major residential pickup effort for Winkler. He services a few customers, including businesses, in the Pittsburgh area.

“I’m nervous, but I’m also excited about how this is going to push me and continue to build commercial and residential pickup,” he said.

He partnered with Sustainable Sewickley to bring the program to the area.

Sustainable Sewickley co-chair Suzanne Watters said her nonprofit group is excited about the opportunity to make an environmental difference.

“We are thrilled to be diverting organic waste for a whole year in the Sewickley area and to be creating awareness around the idea that people in a community can come together to improve the waste stream,” Watters said. “It is about more than just diverting organic waste. Organic waste in landfills creates a tremendous amount of methane or carbon emissions, and we, as a society, continue to fill landfills and to create more and more landfills.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated 63.1 million tons of food waste was generated in the commercial, institutional and residential sectors in 2018. That’s about 22% of all municipal solid waste, according to the EPA’s website.

Winkler has been doing his part to change that. He launched his business in November 2018 and has been working with local restaurants and businesses to come up with composting plans.

Compost can be used in a home garden to refresh soils in potted plants. It’s also sold to organic farms, municipal parks, golf courses and landscapers in the region.

Watters believes the program is a shining example of what can be done in the Quaker Valley, and hopes the effort will serve as an example of a prototype for surrounding communities.

“I think that this food scrap pickup program says so much about our community,” Watters said. “It says that we care about future generations or we care about the world that our children and our grandchildren will live in. We care about reducing carbon in the atmosphere and about working to reach the goal to cut U.S. carbon emissions 50% to 52% by 2030. We care about creating a world that isn’t filled with landfills.”

Winkler echoed Watters’ sentiments. He would like to see community leaders and the Quaker Valley Council of Government officials rethink how they handle garbage collection and implement more environmentally beneficial projects.

More information about the collection program is available on the Zero Waste Wrangler Facebook page, at sustainablesewickley.wordpress.com and zerowastewrangler.com.