Boston is going all-in on composting in order to help reach its goal of being carbon-neutral by midcentury. Under a new plan from Mayor Marty Walsh, Boston will provide citywide composting pickup, meaning that city residents will now be able to place their food and gardening waste curbside to be picked up with their other waste.
The goal of the composting scheme is to increase the share of compostable or recyclable waste—that would otherwise end up in a landfill—to 80 percent by 2035 from around 25 percent today, and then to nearly 100 percent by 2050. By doing this, the city could convert about 638,000 tons of its annual churn of about 1.2 million tons of waste to compost or to recyclable material.
Boston says it would charge residents for the service through subscriptions—though the Walsh administration says the city would try to subsidize some of the cost. Although the subscription cost has not been determined, the service is expected to roll out this fall.
